Sukiyaki Season 2
by BlueBow
Summary: Our heroes have finally arrived in Egypt after almost a month of arduous travels and formidable Stand users. As the climax approaches, Suki must make difficult decisions in order to preserve the lives of her new friends, her family, and especially herself. With the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, according to Whit Houston, a curious ally, the group must march on.
1. Chapter 16 - Ashes of Dreams

**WARNING: This story contains instances of graphic violence, gore, coarse language, and sexual content. A warning will exist at the beginning of a chapter containing anything explicit, and will be sectioned off by another warning right beforehand, and another line right where the explicit scene ends. You have been warned.**

* * *

"Right then," Kakyoin took a deep breath and sat himself down at the desk in the corner of the hotel room. Guiding the paper he had set on the surface closer to him and propping his open book against the wall, the honor student gently grasped the pencil he held and began to write. Soon, the room was filled with the sounds of scratching, sometimes followed by the squeaks of a rubber eraser against the hard surface. The area was silent otherwise, as Kakyoin's eyes darted from the book to his paper and back again.

His pencil stopped mid stride, as he raised his hand to his stray strand of hair and began to twist it over his fingers. After a moment, he leaned back slightly and addressed the man on the balcony. "Jotaro?" The delinquent backed a pace away from the railing at which he had been lounging, his ignited cigarette still resting between his lips. "Is the logarithmic value of one million five or six? I left my calculator back upstairs."

Jotaro narrowed his eyes in response, removing the cigarette from his mouth before speaking. "Logarithms…We haven't covered those in math yet."

"It hadn't been covered before we left, true, but it _is _being covered now, according to the syllabus. Wasn't your class also given one of those?"

Jotaro cast his eyes back to the balcony, twirling the thin paper stick between his fingers. "I don't have time to worry about schoolwork."

Kakyoin's eyebrows raised slightly before his gaze drifted back to the small table. "That's understandable. Most people tend to become stressed over schoolwork."

The delinquent nodded subtly before walking back out onto the patio, placing the cigarette back into his mouth. Looking over his notebook paper filled with neat, tiny writing, carefully measured spaces separating each written equation, Kakyoin finally sighed and scooted back from the table. After pushing his chair back in, he joined his fellow student in the warm desert air. He curled his fingers over the railing next to the other man, gazing out over bustling market area below. With more careful observation, he noticed a quartet of familiar faces examining various stalls. His eyes landed on Suki, running from one group member to another, her face bright with energy even under the steadily setting sun. As the honor student spared a glance at Jotaro, he noticed the delinquent watching the same person, the typically tightened muscles of his face loosening into placidity and his eyes falling half-lidded.

"You wish you were there, don't you?" Kakyoin asked.

Jotaro's expression reverted as he seemed to return to reality, as he glanced at Kakyoin from the corner of his eye. "'There'?"

"At the market, with Suki." The other man did not respond, only removing his cigarette from his mouth to exhale a stream of smoke. Kakyoin looked back down to the market. His eyes crinkled as a smile grew on his lips, "She's truly an angel. Just like your mother."

"Stop hitting on my mom."

The honor student turned back to Jotaro with an expression lacking in humor. "I told you before when we left your house, what I said about your mother was completely platonic. I was merely observing how kind she was. Her sincerity touched me deeply," Kakyoin noticed a menacing glare from Jotaro out of the corner of his eye as he spoke, "…And I should definitely rephrase that. But, that day, I was only drawing a comparison between your mother's kindness and the kindness of the person I would want to be with forever. I swear, if I actually was interested in her, we would not be having this conversation."

"Yeah, that's exactly what you said," The delinquent's glare faded, "The way you're talking…You sound like you don't want to be with _her_."

Kakyoin smiled gently. "I don't want to get in the way."

"We still want you around, Kakyoin."

"That is…"

"She cares about you. A lot," Jotaro admitted. "And you're…You're my good friend, so I want you around, too."

The redhead turned and met Jotaro's gaze, his own expression softening. "Jotaro…"

"Now, stop being so down on yourself, so I don't have to say embarrassing things like that," He said as he turned back to look out over the market.

After a moment, Kakyoin sighed softly, a small smile turning up the corners of his mouth as he joined his friend's gaze to the area below. "Right."

The next few minutes were silent, save for the hustle and bustle of the marketplace.

"When everything is over," Kakyoin started, as he felt an errant breeze blow past his face, "I really do hope we can all stay close. Meeting you all…it's been really nice."

The honor student could've sworn he saw a small smile appear on his friend's face for a fraction of a second. "Yeah."

"I bet it would be fun to visit each other's homes."

"Hm. Maybe."

"And you would get to spend more time with your girlfriend, who you think is so cute."

Jotaro's eyes widened slightly, as his gaze darted to Kakyoin. "Wh-When did I…?"

Kakyoin grinned slyly at the delinquent. "It slipped out just now, if that's what you're asking."

Jotaro sighed, his cheeks reddening slightly. "Good grief."

Kakyoin chuckled, as he pushed himself back from the railing and walked back into the hotel room. Moving back to the table, he looked down at his work, sitting untouched. He exhaled a small sigh and gathered his papers and book into a neat pile. Casting his gaze to the television sitting on the shelf pushed against the wall, he carefully sat on the bed closest to him and pulled the remote off the bedside table. Kakyoin made himself more comfortable on the bed as he flicked the television on, resting his back against the pillows and stretching his legs towards the end. As he flicked through the channels, Jotaro walked back in, tossing his extinguished cigarette into the nearby trash can. The delinquent glanced at the TV then looked to Kakyoin. As their eyes met, the honor student darted his eyes to the unoccupied side of the bed and back, inviting his fellow student to make himself comfortable. Jotaro shrugged and settled down on the bed next to Kakyoin, resting his head on his arms as he lay on his stomach.

Kakyoin paused his scan on the channels, lifting his finger off the "Channel " button as the camera followed a tiger shark swimming through murky waters. The word "¡Tintorera!" flashing on-screen in unprofessional-looking, red letters. Kakyoin's eyes narrowed in skepticism.

"And here we have some shark movie that looks like garbage," Jotaro muttered.

Kakyoin's thumb hovered over the "Channel " button for a moment, before a thought occurred to him. "Want to watch it and point out the inaccuracies?" He asked, a faint smile playing on his lips.

Jotaro did not hesitate for even a second. "Shit yes."

Kakyoin dropped the remote between them with finality and relaxed more into the bed as the two kept their eyes glued to the subpar movie beginning to play on-screen.

* * *

"Whatcha doin'?" Suki asked, joining Abdul in one of the covered, wooden shops. Looking over his shoulder, she noted a varied selection of differently colored stones and crystals. The fortune teller responded without facing her, picking up one of the gems between his thumb and forefinger.

"Well, originally, I had been perusing this stall's stock of gemstones for decent power stones to give to my patrons, but then an idea occurred to me…" He turned to Suki with a slight smile, "You recall Whit's explanation about Stand Transplants, correct? How they use gemstones to hold Stand power?"

"I do…Where are you going with this?" Suki asked.

"I wish to examine the properties of some of these stones and see if I am able to figure out how exactly Stands are placed into them. If we can deduce that much, then perhaps we can come up with a way to reverse the process."

"You mean…give people their Stands back?" The brunette wondered, scratching her head. "But…didn't Whit say that was impossible?"

"He did, but he seemed to be wrestling with the issue as much as we were. No matter how self-assured he may be of his foresight, it would appear his knowledge is still limited. If the possibility of saving more lives truly does exist, no matter how small, I am resolved to do what I can."

"…That reminds me!" Suki snapped her fingers and reached for her throat, grasping the cord and pulling her necklace out from under her shirt, "Whit called this a Stand Transplant, too. Maybe you could use it as a baseline?"

She removed the amulet from around her neck and held it out in the palm of her hand to the fortune teller. He cast his eyes from the softly glowing star back to Suki. "Are you certain?" She smiled and nodded. Abdul gently took the object from her hand and met her eyes once more. "I'll need to return to the hotel to consult my resources, but I should be able to return this to you at dinner."

"Sounds good!"

With that, the two split off. Suki cast her gaze about the sunny street before her eyes landed on a shop filled with paintings along the wall. In particular, a serene, dark blue painting that rang familiar to her caught her eye. Stepping closer to the artwork in the stall, she was startled out of her thoughts by the merchant.

"Find something you fancy, Miss?" He asked, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

"Oh, no, I'm just browsing. Thank you, though!" Suki denied.

After a moment, the shopkeeper nodded and slunk back behind the counter, as Suki continued to stare at the painting, a memory slowly pulling itself into the forefront of her mind.

"_Starry_ _Night_…"

* * *

"Now, this is supposed to be real hush-hush, you get me?" Minaj asked, turning to her friends who had followed her onto the roof of the small shed situated outside her house. Suki, Michel and Kyuu all nodded without a word as Minaj carefully lifted the hatch leading into the structure. With a responding nod, Minaj slammed open the hatch the rest of the way, causing Michel to violently flinch and Suki to tilt her head confusedly, as the leader jumped down into the building and yelled up at her followers.

"Welcome to Art Paradise, _mes_ _amies_!"

"…I thought you said this was supposed to be 'hush-hush'?" Kyuu asked, staring into the dim room past the hatch, retreating slightly as Minaj rested a ladder against the roof. Her dark eyes and mischievous grin glimmered like a Cheshire Cat's in the faint sunlight filtering through the opening and the cracks in the shoddy shed.

"It is! My pap just needs a little more faith in what he makes!" Minaj explained. Suki was the first to descend the ladder, stepping off the worn rungs with an odd care to her step as she cast her gaze about with little rhyme or reason. "Well, don't be shy! Come on, Kiki!" Minaj took both of Suki's hands in hers as she led the small girl to a wall covered in paintings, despite the disapproving look of her older brother. Minaj turned on the lights to reveal wall-to-wall paintings, no matter where one cast their gaze. Big, small, subtle and blunt, colored paint was everywhere in this room, save for a large closet built into the back wall. Each painting popped off the wall in its own distinct way, but the colors seemed to be blended according to placement so as not to hurt the eyes of any observers who dropped in.

"So coooooooool…" Suki murmured, excitedly looking from wall to wall.

"Right, right?" Minaj clapped her hands together happily, thoroughly enjoying the preteen's amusement.

Kyuu and Michel, who had descended into the shed while Minaj and Suki were chatting, began to observe the different paintings. The boy stopped in front of one painting with a skeptical expression, while Michel decided to pay more attention to the sketchbook she had brought with her. As Suki walked around the room with an awed expression, akin to a kid in a candy shop, her attention was captured by a dark blue painting.

Stars shined as brilliantly as summer fireflies against a night sky that was a blue as deep as an ocean. The swirling spiral pathways the brush of the painter had seemed to take instilled a calm, quiet inspiration in the girl; yet, at the same time, the blending colors of the golden stars, indigo sky, and black tower, alongside the muted shades of the sleepy town past the large structure, made her fall into a slight daze, as if she were listening to a lullaby.

"This one is really pretty!" She exclaimed, pointing to the art she had been examining.

Minaj approached from behind, taking Suki by the shoulders as she joined her gaze with the young girl's. "I thought you'd like this one. You seem like the type of…guy who would enjoy art. And, since you like stars so much, I thought you'd like _Starry Night._ Why don't you go look at the other paintings, too?" She suggested, patting Suki on the shoulder awkwardly.

The girl smiled up at her with a happy nod, walking over to another corner of the room. Looking around the shed, Minaj noticed Michel standing by herself out of the corner of her eye, focusing more on her furiously scratching pencil than the paintings in front of her. "Come on, Mick!" The girl in question flinched at the other girl's loud voice next to her, casting her gaze to her addressor, "Don't you wanna look around?" Michel bit her lip and shrunk back. After a moment, she turned her eyes back to her paper and pencil. "Uh, sorry," Minaj apologized, "I guess you don't _have _to, if you don't want to…"

"Hey, Minaj," The boy called.

Minaj turned to Kyuu. "What's up? Like what you see?"

"It's…It's cool…" The teen trailed off.

Minaj raised her eyebrows. "I'll take that as a 'no'?"

"It's not that, just…" Kyuu seemed to have difficulty putting the words together before he spoke again, "your dad can't…seem to decide on a particular style."

The girl shrugged. "I mean, yeah, but, isn't it neat, how he can make so many different styles of paintings?"

"Yeah…_neat…"_ He said distantly. Minaj rolled her eyes, seeing Suki wave her over out of the corner of her eye. With a smile, she walked over to the smaller girl. "If 'neat' means _'jarring,'_ in this case," Kyuu muttered under his breath.

"You're right, your dad _should _have more faith in his works, these are great!" Suki marveled to Minaj, her eyes sparkling.

Minaj smiled and nodded. "I knew you'd understand, Kiki."

"This one…" Michel started.

Minaj turned upon hearing the quiet girl speak, her expression brightening. "Ah, find one you like?"

"_Die Rosen-Wunder Hymne_…" Michel pointed at a canvas centering on a scene of a woman lost in playing the piano, alone on a platform in the middle of a sky-blue sea. On the tumultuous waters' surface floated countless pale pink roses, all under a sky as rosy as cotton candy.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Minaj asked.

"…Melchior Lechter," The timid girl stated.

"…Who?" Minaj asked, raising an eyebrow.

"And this one…" Michel pointed to another painting, one of a pale background dominated by a large tidal wave looming in the foreground, threatening to sweep off the page and capsize the small boats floating harmlessly on the right side of the canvas. "_The Great Wave off Kanagawa_… Katsushika Hosukai…"

"Who's having katsu?" Suki asked with a tilt of her head.

"Then, this one…" Michel then directed Minaj's attention to a painting of an abandoned night street looking in on a sparsely populated bar, the bar being filled with inviting, warm colors, while the street was filled with cold, lonely shades. "_Nighthawks_…painted by Edward Hopper…" Minaj was shocked upon seeing Michel's expression, as the normally quiet, emotionless girl turned to Minaj with burning eyes, looking as though she were about to scream. "Minaj…" Michel's voice was strung so tight, she sounded like she could boil over at any moment, "Do you honestly have _no idea _what kinds of paintings these are?"

"What…What do you mean?" Minaj asked, taken aback.

Michel inhaled stiffly and exhaled in the same manner before responding. "Your dad…isn't the one who originally painted these," Minaj's expression became confused before the other girl continued, "Rather, he isn't the one who came up with these images to put to canvas. He stole those images."

"You're saying…he's an art thief?" The noisy girl wondered.

"'Forger' is a more accurate term," The quiet teenager explained.

Minaj went quiet, closing her eyes as she tried to turn over her friend's words in her head.

"All of these different styles being kept by one artist would make sense, then," Kyuu added, putting a hand to his chin.

"The slight, almost imperceptible color shade differences, the unwieldy brushstrokes compared to the original piece…I'm ashamed that I didn't notice immediately," Michel mused, folding her arms.

"Besides, doesn't only one of each painting exist in specific museums around the world? Why would they all be in a dingy shed in a Cairo suburb like this?" Kyuu questioned.

"Shut up…" Minaj spoke quietly, clenching her hands into tight fists as she opened her eyes and raised her voice. "Just _shut up_!" She whipped around to Michel as she ranted, "What right do you have to call my dad a forger?!"

Michel stood firm. "I'm…an artist. I have to know the difference between the real and the fake."

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you the official art expert around here?" Minaj stormed over to Michel and poked her chest to emphasize her point, "Don't act all high and mighty just because you have _some _artistic ability!"

"Minaj," Kyuu placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, pulling her back from the target of her anger, "I'm not an artist, but I can tell these aren't the genuine article, too. It's difficult to believe, but you need to calm down and stop yelling at Michel." Minaj glared daggers at Kyuu. The teenager met her gaze with an icy stare of his own.

"Uhm…" Suki spoke up, walking towards the small group, "Why does it matter if they're not the actual painting?"

Kyuu ran a hand through his long black hair, exhaling an exasperated sigh. "Because making paintings this way is _illegal_, Akizuki. Her dad could be arrested for this."

Suki lowered her gaze to the dusty floor, losing herself in her thoughts. Then, she looked back up and turned to Minaj. "Does your dad like making these paintings, Minaj?" After a moment, Minaj nodded. Suki smiled in response. "Then, I think it's okay for him to do what he's passionate about, if he isn't hurting anybody."

"No, it's not okay," Michel spoke up, her voice firm, "What he's doing _is _hurting people. It's hurting the original creators of the works by having their pieces taken, copied, and twisted to be slightly different."

"I'm…not an artist like you, Michel, but…" Suki scratched her cheek as she continued, "I think I'd be happy if someone wanted to make more of my work and share how they see it with more of the world. It might not be the exact same, but maybe a different take on the original could make some people happy. Not just the creator of the changed work, but the people who see the new work, too." Suki looked back up at Minaj, who looked as if she were about to cry, with a gentle smile.

Minaj reciprocated with a shaky smile of her own. "Suki…"

Suki's eyes darted to Kyuu, who looked to be upset. The little girl opened her mouth slightly as if to correct Minaj, but, after a moment of thought, she closed it and stayed silent, instead choosing to wrap her arms around Minaj in a light embrace. Minaj was surprised at first, before embracing her back.

"I really don't think you understand the situation, Akizuki," Michel started.

Minaj shifted so Suki was pulled further away from Michel. She cast an icy glare at the artist. "Just shut up, Michel."

"I'll shut up when you get it through your skull that-!"

"Michel, that's enough," Kyuu cut in exasperatedly, "She clearly doesn't want to listen."

Suddenly, the door to the shed unlocked, and Minaj's behemoth of a father stormed in.

"What are you kids doing in here?" He bellowed.

"Pap!" Minaj let go of Suki and walked up to her parent as she explained the situation, "I was just showing my friends your paintings!"

The man's eyes widened, as he cast his gaze to each of the kids' faces, watching as Kyuu and Michel trembled slightly under his fiery brown eyes. With a sigh, he addressed his daughter. "Minaj, honey, I told you several times. You aren't supposed to go around showing people the pieces in this shed!"

"But, Dad, you can't just let these works rot in your shed!" Minaj explained. "Art is meant to be shown to other people, and if you won't show them to other people yourself, then I will!" The father was struck speechless as he held Minaj's gaze. "I just want people to appreciate your paintings as much as I do, Dad. I wouldn't be who I am today, if I hadn't seen what you can make with your own hands."

"Minaj…We need to talk," The father said. The girl's expression softened, as she nodded slowly. Her father turned his gaze to the other children. "You kids should go back home, alright? And not a word of this to _anyone_, you understand?"

Kyuu and Michel nodded vigorously, before making their way to the door. Suki followed close behind, before stopping in front of Minaj. "You'll be okay, right?" The little girl asked.

Minaj smiled softly, patting Suki on the head. "I'll be just fine."

With a small smile, the little girl rushed out of the shed after her brother and friend.

* * *

"Hey, earth to Suki! You still in there?" Suki blinked and turned to Polnareff standing beside her. "We were just about to head back to the hotel," He stated. As he got a better look at her face, he asked, "Are you all right?"

As she opened her mouth to speak, she realized she had been keeping a tight grip on her thumb with her teeth. Putting the red skin and indentations out of her mind, she scratched her head absentmindedly. "I've just been a little worried. I really shouldn't fret so much, but I can't help it." The Frenchman shrugged as he made his way out of the shop, Suki following close behind. As she cast her eyes to the slowly darkening sky, the memories Michel had shown her that belonged to her comrades surfaced once again. The woman found she couldn't stop herself from asking the question at the forefront of her mind as she remembered the rain-soaked graveyard. "Polnareff, where are you gonna go after this?"

"Uh, the hotel...?"

"No, no, I mean...once we've defeated Dio."

The man stopped and turned to Suki. "Why are you…" He sighed. "Right. You, and Mr. Joestar, and Abdul all saw…_that_." The brunette met his eyes with a solemn nod. Polnareff weakly kicked up some dirt from the road. "…I don't really know, in all honesty. I'll figure something out, though."

"...I'd have to ask my mom first, but maybe you could stay with us for a while, until you did."

"Huh?! Oh, no, I couldn't do that!" He denied.

"Why not? All you'd have to do is not be an asshole and refrain from hitting on her. I know you're capable of at least one of those things."

"It's not that, just…" Polnareff trailed off.

"Your next line is, 'I have principles, as a gentleman,'" A deeper voice chimed in.

"I have principles, as a gentleman. Wait, what?!" Polnareff was taken aback by the sudden appearance of Joseph, before he grew defensive, "What's the big idea, barging in on our conversation like that?"

"You guys were taking so long to get back to the hotel, I thought you'd been attacked by an enemy Stand. I wanted to make sure we all got back before the sun set, at the very least," Mr. Joestar explained with a shrug. "Now, come on. The others have probably already gotten a table at the restaurant in the building in the meantime."

* * *

"You're _sure _there wasn't any trouble while we were at the market?" Abdul asked.

"Abdul, I don't think you need to ask again if they said 'no' the first time," Joseph remarked.

Abdul folded his arms and sighed. "I never can be sure, sometimes. Do you recall the encounter with the user of The Devil?"

"…I'm _pretty_ sure I made it clear how much trouble there had been, Abdul," Suki added.

"…You did," The fortune teller admitted, "however, no one anticipated the police becoming involved."

The woman shrugged and took a sip of her water.

"If watching a subpar shark flick counts as 'trouble,' then, yes, I suppose you could say we did have a bit of a run-in with it," Kakyoin responded with a strained tone.

"Less a shark flick and more a soap opera about a three-way," Jotaro grumbled.

"Did you guys confuse _Pink TV_with _Plan__è__te_ or something? That sounds like something you'd find on an adult channel," Polnareff snickered.

"Well, if you'd consider one of the men in that relationship being torn in half by a tiger shark and the other man choosing to go after that same shark and losing an arm in the process to be even _remotely _arousing, then perhaps I _could _see someone making that mistake without realizing it," The honor student snapped.

"Hey, Nori," Suki spoke gently, placing a hand on his forearm, "you said before that it was just a subpar movie, right?"

Kakyoin met her eyes for a moment before his expression softened. "Right. That's all it was."

"I thought you said you'd wake me up when the shark came back in," Jotaro commented.

"I, uh, must have forgotten, then," Kakyoin said. "My apologies, Jotaro."

The delinquent shrugged. "It wasn't very shark-centric in the first place."

Suki's attention was drawn away from the conversation by a tap on her other shoulder. She turned to see Abdul holding her necklace out to her. Her eyes lit up. "Ah, right! Did you find anything?"

"Unfortunately, no. I found I was unable to identify what exactly your amulet was made from," Abdul explained with narrowed eyes. "The only conclusion I was able to come to after thumbing through the books I have was that the material is definitely not of this world, as far as we know."

"Not of this world…" The woman muttered, her own eyes narrowing. With a nod, she reclaimed her possession from Abdul's hand. "Thank you for looking into it. Sorry it didn't turn up much, though."

"It's not a problem. If anything, the research did open more avenues as to what a Stand Transplant could be, if Whit is to be believed."

Turning her gaze from the fortune teller to the elder across from her, Suki announced, "Mr. Joestar, I'm gonna go back upstairs. I've got some studying to do."

"By yourself?" Joseph asked.

"Well," The brunette started, "if no one else is going, I can-"

"I'll go," Jotaro spoke up, standing from his seat. "Make sure you actually study."

"That was the _plan_," Suki expressed with pursed lips as she stood and pushed her chair in.

"Don't study _too _hard!" Polnareff joked as the two walked out away from the table.

"Yeah, yeah," Suki dismissed with a roll of her eyes.

After the two were out of earshot, Joseph turned to Abdul. "What did you need Suki's necklace for?"

"She offered to allow me to examine it for research into a potential method of reversing Stand Transplants," The Egyptian replied.

"Oh, yeah, I remember you mentioning that at one point," The old man recalled.

"Stand… Transplants…" Polnareff mused.

Kakyoin folded his arms as he remarked, "I know he wasn't the most likable person, but don't tell me you weren't listening to _anything_ Whit was saying back on the sub."

"Hey, I was listening!" A moment passed before Polnareff snapped his fingers as he recalled, "Right, that was that creepy human experimentation thing, right? Moving Stands from one person to another, and using a bunch of people's souls for…energy?" He shook his head, "I wouldn't forget something that screwed up."

"You still seem to have been barely listening," The honor student muttered.

"Regardless…" Abdul started, "He specifically claimed that a gemstone is required in the creation of a Transplant. I wished to see if I could figure out what properties determine how compatible a Stand Transplant and a new user are. Perhaps then… We could find a way to return Stands to their original users."

"But, didn't Whit say that people who had their Stands confiscated would die?" Kakyoin asked.

"Yes, however, he seemed uncertain if that was a guarantee," Abdul brought a hand to his chin. "I may be lacking in knowledge concerning research of this particular topic, but my area of expertise may be able to assist in finding a way to save the lives that have been lost."

"You're gonna use fortune-telling to help?" Polnareff suggested.

"In a sense. More specifically, I will be using the knowledge of gemstones I have at this time, until I can conduct a more in-depth form of research," The fortune-teller replied.

"Right, you mentioned back on the sub that they had metaphysical properties and were used for healing, among other things…" Joseph pointed out.

"Correct," Abdul closed his eyes in thought as he continued. "Crystals and stones have long been used for body, mind, and soul healing since before recorded history. Evidence exists that points to their therapeutic uses being capitalized upon even thousands of years ago, hence why I believed the ruins Whit showed us pictures of could have been buried for a similar period of time."

"Wait, wait, back up," Polnareff interjected, causing the fortune teller to open his eyes and turn to him. "How do people use them to heal themselves, exactly?"

Abdul smiled as he began to explain. "Those minerals are used to balance the body and restore energy, stimulating the natural healing within the body, mind and spirit. They are used to promote peace and tranquility, as well as remove blockages from the flow of energy that is our body and aura. Each mineral represents different organs, astrological signs and emotional attributes and, most importantly, resonates individually with each person. People tend to wear crystal and stone jewelry to increase energy and heal the body. Each transmits its power through color and vibration. As we are well aware, Stand Transplants do not possess the same uses of precious gems; however, perhaps Stand Transplant functions were brought into creation through lateral thinking of the functions of those minerals."

Polnareff hummed as he closed his eyes in thought. "…So, if each gem resonates individually with each person based on what you told us, wouldn't the combinations of people and gemstones have to be really specific?" He speculated, folding his arms. "Not only that, but if you're moving a Stand from one person to another through a gem, wouldn't it have to resonate with the giver _and _the taker?"

The Frenchman opened his eyes to see shocked expressions surrounding him. "Wh-What? What are you staring for?"

"We weren't expecting logic like that from you, Polnareff," Mr. Joestar admitted.

The silver-haired man shook his head and turned to Abdul. "Look, this is important to you, right? I…wanted to help as much as I could, even if it wasn't much."

Abdul smiled. "I really appreciate that, Polnareff. You did bring up something important, though. I had pondered how exactly the Stand donator and recipient needed to be related beforehand, but I had not yet deduced how specific the attributes of the Transplant needed to be…"

"We only have Whit's and Suki's as examples, correct?" Kakyoin wondered.

"Suki has a Stand Transplant?" Polnareff asked.

"That is what Whit explained her necklace to be, I believe," The redhead answered, bringing a hand to his chin, "Considering she said he had her place the necklace on the wall painting he showed us pictures of, he likely expected a similar reaction to what he received when he created a connection between the painting and his own Transplant. There is…no concrete evidence to prove this, but… I believe this may be the situation."

"Much as I would like to compare the two…" Abdul started, "Her necklace…It isn't like anything I've seen before…Comparing her accessory to Whit's, it's as if they were not even found on the same planet…"

"Let's just look at Whit's, then," Joseph suggested, "What did you say you thought the gem was again?"

"Garnet," Abdul explained, "I have yet to determine whether its species is Almandine or Rhodolite, though…"

"What's the difference between Rhodolite and Almandine?" Kakyoin probed.

"Both are very similar shades of red, hence why I'm having difficulty determining which species Whit's collar belongs to," The fortune teller's expression grew contemplative as he described the differences between the species. "Almandine garnet is used as a means of giving the spirit a form of grounding, thereby warding off negative energies or entities. Meanwhile, Rhodolite gives the spirit inner alignment, giving the holder knowledge of the correct steps to take down a spiritual path. In addition, this species offers emotional healing, particularly concerning guilt and shame, overall strengthening the emotional body."

"I see…" Kakyoin responded.

"Man, this is a lot to think about…" Polnareff confessed, scratching his forehead, "I'm not sure I can come up with an answer right now…"

"As I stated before, this is mainly a theoretical pursuit, at the moment," Abdul consoled, "It is quite alright if you can't get an answer immediately after I gave you all this information."

"Alright…" The Frenchman begrudgingly gave in.

Turning his gaze to the honor student, Abdul noticed he was staring critically at his stray strand of hair as he twirled it between his fingers. The fortune teller addressed him, "Kakyoin? Is something the matter?"

The redhead blinked several times before turning to Abdul with a sheepish smile. "Ah, no, I merely had a thought…" As the others waited for him to continue, he cleared his throat, "You said you wanted to find a way to return Stands to their rightful owners, correct?" Abdul nodded. "Perhaps…and this is just a shot in the dark, but perhaps we could do more for Stand users than just return what has been lost…I had been thinking, what if we had come up with a way to take Holly's Stand away, in a way that wouldn't harm her, and then return it when she would be able to properly control it? That seemed inhumane to me, so the next question came to me: what if we created a way to inhibit Stand activity?"

"Inhibit it?" Joseph asked.

"Yes, particularly for people who do not possess a strong fighting will, or who have yet to develop it. Taking someone's Stand is much like taking a part of them away, so if there was a method for the user to keep their Stand, while also learning to maintain control over it at their own pace…maybe, then…" He shook his head. "My apologies, this is purely theoretical."

"Please, don't apologize," Abdul said, "I think it is a worthwhile theory to pursue, Kakyoin. Stands are quite powerful beings. If left unchecked or without the proper control, who knows what could happen? Finding a way to facilitate Stand safety would surely benefit future generations of Stand users. I guarantee it."

Kakyoin smiled and nodded.

"Oh, God, it's getting late," Joseph expressed, looking at his pocket watch, "You two should get back to your rooms." Polnareff and Kakyoin stood, making their way to the lobby. "Oh, before you go back, though-" The two turned upon hearing Joseph's voice, "Could you check on Jotaro and Suki? They should be in one of their rooms, but I just want to make sure everyone's…up to standard, for tomorrow."

The two cast a glance at each other before they nodded to Joseph and continued on their way.

"Are you certain your idea will work out, Mr. Joestar?" Abdul asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Come on, Abdul, have a little more faith in me! Of course it will!"

The fortune teller sighed. "If you say so."

* * *

"Didn't expect there to be a library in the building…" Jotaro muttered, falling into step with the girl beside him as they walked back through the lounge to the staircase. Craning his neck slightly to scan the spine of the book she was carrying, he raised an eyebrow at the title. "So, you were serious about studying, then."

"Look, being a horndog doesn't make you stupid. Not as far as I know," She explained, beginning to scale the stairs up to the third floor. "Although, I didn't really pick this up with practicing English at the forefront of my mind, even if it is written in English."

"Why the meteorite book, then?"

"Abdul told me that he thought my amulet was 'not of this world,'" Suki stated, glancing down at the beat-up, dark blue book in her hands titled _Meteorites – Messengers from Space_. "I wanted to see if this had any records of meteor crashes, or, at the very least, information about what people _have _discovered about rocks that aren't found on this planet. It's a shame this was the only one I could find about this particular subject in the astronomy section, though…"

As the two reached the hotel room, Jotaro unlocked the door and let Suki walk into the room before shutting the door behind him. The woman set her satchel on the floor next to her and sat in the middle of her bed without a word. Jotaro sat down on his bed for a moment, merely watching as Suki carefully examined each page, silently mouthing the words she read. The delinquent reached into his pocket and closed his hand around his box of cigarettes, but the sound of rustling fabric caught the girl's attention, causing her to dart her head up and look towards the source of the noise. She met his gaze and smiled sheepishly before turning her attention back to the book.

Suki only drew her attention away from the book once more as she felt weight being added to the bed. She nervously rubbed the page she was about to turn between her thumb and index finger before she relaxed into the man behind her.

"As several hundred meteorite falls have been observed in the last ken…_cen_tury," She murmured slowly, "the reports of eye…eyewitnesses comprise vol…volume…volume-inous…Dang it."

The girl made to reach for her bag, but the delinquent reached down and pulled the satchel up by the strap and handed it to her. She smiled at him and fished through the contents of the bag before she found the small red dictionary close to the bottom and removed it. Thumbing through the pages near the back of the book, she quickly found the word.

"_Voluminous_…Occupying or containing much space. When referring to writing, very lengthy and full," She read, turning back to the blue book on her other side. "…Voluminous literature…"

A few minutes later, Suki reached a chart that detailed the various compositions of meteorites.

"Oh, okay, I see," The girl realized. "So, there's iron meteorites, made up of more than ninety percent metal, mainly composed of nickel-iron; stone meteorites, made up of more than seventy-five percent stony material, and those can be either chondrites or achondrites, depending on whether they have chondrules, millimeter-size silicate spheres; and stony iron meteorites, divided further into pallasites and mesosiderites…"

"So, what does that say about your necklace, then?" Jotaro asked.

Suki rested her chin in her palm as her eyes narrowed. "I'm not quite sure. I might need to get a geologist or astronomer or something to look at it. Even then, though, until we find out what exactly ties Stand Transplant properties and gemstone properties or properties that my amulet has together, that information won't do much…" She muttered, turning the page. As she did so, a single folded paper fell out of the book. The girl's expression grew quizzical as she shut the book and picked up the paper and unfolded it. The sheet had an elegant border with a rose-and-vine motif, but, aside from a heading in the top left that read, "ROSES"-

"It's blank…?" She placed the sheet between her palms and rubbed them together slowly, "_This _is, but someone wrote on top of it, I think…" Reaching into her bag, she pulled out her notebook and pencil. "It's kind of like with the secret letters Kyuu would send to me alongside the ones for Mom, while he worked for Dio…So maybe I can…" She scratched her pencil across the page, creating broad strokes with the lead that revealed white markings against the greying surface. "There _is _something, but," She squinted and brought the paper closer to her face, "this writing is so tiny…I don't think I can make it out…"

"Let me see," Jotaro suggested, holding his hand out to her. Suki placed the now grey slip in his palm as he examined it himself. Silently calling Star Platinum out, he let his Stand scan the near microscopic writing. A moment later, the spirit tilted his head with a confused expression. "I…can't understand it."

"Maybe if…" Suki handed her journal and writing utensil to Star Platinum. "Try writing it down. If neither of us can understand it, maybe we can show it to someone who can," She suggested. With that, the Stand began to quickly transcribe the letters on the paper into the notebook. Less than five minutes passed, and the Stand nodded as he reached the last letter, handing the supplies back to Suki with a small smile. Flipping through the pages onto which he had neatly copied what he saw, the girl's eyes lit up. "This is _Arabic_! I can read this."

"What does it say, then?"

"Well, let's see," Suki cleared her throat and began to read. "Should anyone find these notes and be able to read them, even then, I shall not divulge the identity of those I choose to assist. With what I have seen, nothing surprises me anymore; however, with my poor memory, I must keep some form of record of my time with them. All will be lost, otherwise.

"All they tasked me with, in return for continued study of their society, was finding the scattered fragments of their home. Earth is but one of the many landing sites of some of the shards that had been spirited away. When asked what exactly these pieces were, they merely dismissed that their way of referring to them would be lost on a being as weak of mind as I. As such, they supplied me with a colloquialism: Tears of Ash.

"I must confess, after finding one of these said 'Tears,' the tag 'of Ash' does not a fitting name make, unless they are colorblind or some such nonsense. The Tears of Ash are in fact not gray or even silver, as I had imagined, but various shades of glowing green. They are warm to the touch; just holding this fragment, about the size of a human infant, makes me feel at ease.

"Despite this, the chieftain has warned me that I, as well as the rest of my species, would surely self-destruct, should we uncover the truth of these Tears. Of course, I asked why, to which they replied, 'Your world is all you know. If you were to experience something beyond the true limits of imagination, your body, mind, and soul would cease to exist as entities you can grasp. Even if _you_ were to limit _yourself_ in pursuing our knowledge, the consequences would be ill-defined by any human language.' I did not ask further about what he meant.

"Unfortunately, I was unable to find the Tear that had crash-landed in England during the Victorian era. I know not to where it was relocated, but my only hope, if the warnings of the elder are to be believed, is that it sleeps somewhere where no one of weak a mentality as humans will discover it. My next order is to find the one that struck a small city in Japan rather recently. If my sources are to be believed, it must have-"

"…That's…all there is," Suki concluded, coming to the last word that had been written. After tucking the paper in the pages of her notebook and placing it on the bed, she pulled out her necklace and stared intently at the star centerpiece.

"So, your pendant is part of one of those 'Tears of Ash' the writer mentioned?"

The girl did not respond to Jotaro's question at first, turning the object over and over again in her hands. "…My great grandma told me her husband found this material while mining and worked for a year to fashion it into something that would play her favorite song whenever she liked. He proposed to her with it, since he couldn't afford a ring. My granddad used it to propose to his wife, and my mom, being an only child, decided to buck the trend and propose to the man she loved herself. Even having done that, she still gave it to Kyuu, who, in turn, put it in my hands…" She stilled her hands. "What this is…has it just been a lie?"

Without a word, Jotaro reached forward and took the necklace from her hands. He turned the small knob and allowed the soft tune to fill the room, placing the object back in her hand. Suki smiled softly. She placed the notes back in the book and turned around, wrapping her arms around her partner and resting her head on his shoulder.

"I don't know what to make of all this…" She murmured.

"Hm."

"Hey, so, would you maybe want to…?" Suki mumbled half-heartedly, reaching down and thumbing the rough material of one of his belts.

Her hand was firmly grasped by the wrist and pulled away. At this, Suki looked up to see Jotaro meeting her eyes with a stern gaze. As her eyebrows raised, he slowly let his hand fall from hers, as he cast his eyes away. "Maybe…later…"

"…Maybe later, it is, then," She responded with an accepting smile. The girl then moved so her legs dangled off the side of the bed, resting her head on Jotaro's shoulder. Her cheeks heated as she felt his arm slide across her back, resting his hand on her side.

A firm knock sounded on the door.

"Fucking…" Suki muttered with a sigh, reluctantly peeling herself away from her partner and stepping over to the door. Upon seeing Polnareff and Kakyoin outside, her mood immediately brightened, as she opened the door. "What's up?" She asked, standing in the doorway.

"You got something to hide in there that you don't want us seeing?" Polnareff teased with a mischievous smile.

Suki rolled her eyes and stepped out of the way, as the two men walked into the room. "Look, Officer, you can check wherever you want, there's no contraband anywhere, I promise," She snarked.

"Oh, that's not the kind of evidence we're looking for, Miss."

"_Polnareff_," Kakyoin warned, as the Frenchman snickered. The honor student shook his head and turned to Suki with a soft smile. "Sorry to barge in. Mr. Joestar was adamant about us checking up on you before bed."

"It's no problem," Suki shrugged. "There sure was a lot of time between when we left the restaurant and now, though. Did you guys lose track of time talking?"

"In a sense," Kakyoin admitted. "Abdul wanted to speak about an idea he had."

"It didn't make a lot of sense," Polnareff added.

"That may have been because you hadn't been paying attention when Whit first explained STs," The redhead shot back.

"Well, I'm never gonna use one of those things, so I didn't think there was a point to listening! But, on another note," Polnareff said with a grin, "wasn't that girl out there by the entrance a cutie? I'm gonna go see if I can chat her up later!"

"You should go for it," Kakyoin encouraged, "30,000 yen on you failing."

"That's just mean!" Polnareff whined.

As the two men chatted on, Suki noticed Jotaro looking up slowly from his more reclined position on the bed, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the door. "Jotaro?" She called.

Polnareff looked over upon hearing Suki's voice, his gaze turning to the delinquent. "What's up?

"It's just…"Jotaro muttered, "I felt a presence outside that door…"

As Polnareff and Kakyoin looked to the door, the honor student walked over and opened it, looking down both hallways before speaking to the people behind him, "No one's out here."

"Maybe it was just that asshole bellhop fucking with us again…" Polnareff muttered.

"No, it wasn't him," Jotaro claimed, "He knows what he's doing when it comes to stealth. It's weird, but…It felt like whoever was outside that door _wanted _someone to notice."

"Well, all the more reason to keep our wits about us, then," Suki concluded.

* * *

The next morning, after breakfast, everyone was called to Mr. Joestar's room…

"Everyone, take a look at this!" The old man announced, gesturing to a large pile of random clothes and accessories that littered one of the beds and part of the floor. "It's your turn to take up the mantle!"

Every person in the room besides Joseph and Abdul looked on in confusion. After a silence that lasted way too long, Jotaro spoke up. "Hey, old man, what kind of party game is this?"

"What, don't you get it?" Joseph asked.

"Apologies, but I have no idea what you're trying to get at here," Kakyoin expressed, folding his arms.

"I've been thinking about this for a while," Joseph began, "but the conversation you said you and Jotaro had last night made me certain of one thing! Don't you…Kind of stand out too much?"

...

"That weird dangly noodle hair, your telephone-pole-like height, and that foreign school uniform! You stand out far too much! Me, Suki, and Abdul are the only ones who fit into our surroundings! Abdul looks like a local, and Suki and I look like travelers, so you should be the same!" The old man shouted.

"Uhm, why…?" Suki trailed off.

"Why are you only making a deal of this now?!" Polnareff fumed.

"There's that," Suki agreed, "but also why make a deal of this, period? We weren't exactly planning to be stealthy to begin with…"

"We're always being targeted by the enemy, so we should have a little more self-awareness!" Joseph argued.

"You say that, but can't Dio see our every move and stuff anyway?" Polnareff bit back.

"He isn't watching our every move at every second of every day, but he kind of…I guess he 'locks on' to the Joestar bloodline and finds us that way. That's how I gathered it when I saw him do it a couple of times," Suki explained, bringing a hand to her chin.

"Yeah," Polnareff agreed, raising his fist in victory, "so us being targeted has nothing to do with us looking obviously like the targets! Duh! Ain't that right, guys?"

Kakyoin appeared to agree, as he slightly raised his fist to mirror Polnareff in a show of support.

"I certainly see your point, but…Imagine if we had outfits that made us not, say, instantaneously recognizable? Then we could be the ones launching the surprise attacks!" Mr. Joestar pointed out.

"And even still, we'll be a group of incredibly tall men and one small woman," Kakyoin stated, folding his arms.

"Hey!" Suki called out. "I'm only small compared to mammoth men like you guys!"

"Ah, that is true," The honor student admitted, blushing slightly.

"I don't think that's completely true, though," Polnareff said, "She still has to look up to talk to some people, after all."

Suki pouted. "Knock it off…"

"Can we get back on subject, please?" Joseph asked irritably.

Jotaro sighed. "I don't see what any of this would achieve. More importantly, that mysterious presence from last night-"

Before he could finish, Joseph got in his grandson's face and pointed at him with both index fingers, "Ugh! I'm not going to hear any more arguments from you lot! Just hurry up and get changed so we can practice! We'll play a game in the hotel lobby!"

"A game?" Kakyoin asked.

"Here are the rules," Abdul explained. "You must disguise yourself. You must place a cigarette on Joseph's table. Joseph must not notice you."

"If I catch you, you're out!" Joseph chimed in, "The lobby is a large, open space. The start point is the table where Abdul is sitting, so go look for him! I'll be in disguise too, so you'll barely recognize me!" With that, he walked to the door with Abdul, holding open the door for him and waving to the rest of the group. "Goooooood luck!" The door shut behind the two men.

"I guess we're doing this, then," Polnareff sighed.

"What would make a good disguise, though…?" Kakyoin mused, sifting through the mountain of disjoint outfits.

"Hmm, what indeed…?" Suki wondered, stepping up beside the redhead and eyeing the pile.

"You're playing, too?" Jotaro asked.

"Hey, a lesson in subtlety never hurt anyone," Suki said, her eyes glinting, "Besides, it could be a bit of fun!"

"Oh, are you the competitive type, Suki?" Polnareff asked.

The woman grinned impishly. "Maaaaybe…Whaddya say? May the best disguiser win?" She asked, casting her gaze between the others.

Jotaro sighed. "Whatever."

* * *

The hotel lobby with bright white floors bustled with the midmorning crowd of tourists and employees, as the plethora of people all talking at once submerged their ears in nothing but noise. At a table closer to the hallway leading to the first floor accommodations, Abdul sat quietly with a pack of cigarettes in front of him. He removed his dark sunglasses as a pair of men approached him, and he couldn't contain a small snicker.

Kakyoin was fully outfitted in a dapper black suit with a red tie, and a black fedora to match, with no sign of his one red bang in sight. He adjusted his grey rimmed glasses as he stopped at the table with Polnareff, who sported a short sleeve hoodie over his tank top and his hair falling loosely at the sides of his head, with a few stray cowlicks sticking up from the front of his hair.

"Jeez, he's made this into an enigma wrapped in a mystery," Polnareff complained, placing his hands on the table, "Is this the start point?

Kakyoin cast his eyes about the busy lobby. "There's a lot of people here."

"While I know you two have a lot of complaints about all of this, why don't you try to enjoy the game?" Abdul suggested.

"Well, I plan to play along to the best of my ability," Kakyoin said with a mischievous smirk.

"We're going for the win!" Polnareff affirmed.

"Well, Mr. Joestar probably thinks this is a fun change of pace, too, I'd say," The fortuneteller predicted, chuckling. "Enjoy yourselves."

"Yeah, I got it," Polnareff took a cigarette from the box and observed the large room dominated on one side by lavish sofas and chairs. "So, where is this Mr. Joestar?"

As Kakyoin obtained his cigarette, he noticed one was missing from the small carton, apart from the one Polnareff grabbed. "Jotaro and Suki left the room before either of us. Has one of them started playing?" The honor student asked. Abdul nodded.

"Oh, hey, that area's a little busier," Polnareff noted, pointing toward the center of the lobby. "That girl over there is kinda cute, too."

The eyes of the other two men landed on the couch in the middle of the leisure area with a table to its left, where four people had gathered. Kakyoin and Abdul looked to the right side of the sofa, where a pale, black-haired, purple-eyed person sat, wearing a crop top with separated sleeves extending from the hands to just past the elbows, elegantly designed breathable-looking matching pants (Abdul later informed the pair that those were called a sirwal), and a matching headdress and veil that only covered the mouth and nose, all in a rose-red color with golden accents. The person appeared to be socializing quietly with another person sitting in the middle of the couch, but…

"Polnareff," Abdul started with a sigh, "you _are _aware that that is a male you're pointing out, correct?'

"No, not him! The person on the _other _side of the couch!" Polnareff corrected.

The two men looked again to see a much more feminine figure with waist-length blonde hair and silver eyes standing on the other side of the couch, wearing a very similar outfit, but in an oceanic blue color, with golden bangle bracelets on her right arm and anklets of the same making on her left ankle. In contrast to the quieter man, she seemed to chime in giddily every once in a while.

"Her?" Kakyoin tried, pointing at the long-haired woman.

"Not _her_, either!" Polnareff denied. "The girl _on_ the _couch_ on the _other side!"_

Directing their eyes to the person sitting on the other side of the person in the middle of the couch, they saw a woman with darker skin compared to her two companions with sharp, catlike features, brown hair that just reached her shoulders, and brown eyes. Her milky pink outfit matched those of her friends in structure as well, save for the many belts criss-crossing across her sirwal legs. She sat silently with her hands in her lap, rubbing her finger over a bracelet on her left wrist.

"If you say so, Polnareff," Abdul said, chuckling.

"Aw, come on, she's adorable!" The silver-haired man shot back.

Upon further examination of the girl Polnareff had pointed out, Kakyoin recognized the curve of her grin under her face mask. He smiled. "She's pretty cute, I'll give you that, Polnareff."

"See? Even _Kakyoin _agrees with me! He never agrees with me when talking about girls!" Polnareff looked over to the group again. His smile fell as he pointed at the one person in the middle of the couch. "Wait, hang on, that's…

Wearing purple high heels with white bows, grey pantyhose, a black pencil skirt, a white blouse and purple open sweater, gold necklace, a purple hat with a black ribbon, and garish, overwhelming makeup…

…was Joseph.

Polnareff rushed up to the old man and shouted, "You think you can pass for an old lady!?"

Joseph shot Hermit Purple out from his hands, instantly tying up Polnareff. "Gotchaaa!"

"Aww, crud," Polnareff groaned.

The man in red and the women in blue and pink raised their hands to their mouths in exaggerated surprise. "Shock!" The red man and blue woman cried.

"You're Polnareff, aren't you?" Joseph jumped for joy as he cheered, "You! Are! Out!"

"Aww, c'mon, this is cheating!" The Frenchman complained, writhing in his restraints on the floor. "Not fair at all, right, Kakyoin!?"

Kakyoin was about a meter from the table he had to place the cigarette on, as he couldn't hide his surprise. "You idiot! Don't say that out loud!"

Hermit Purple manifested on Joseph's hand, as he raised his palm menacingly. "Too late!"

Kakyoin immediately took a defensive stance. "I swore I wouldn't run from another fight," The honor student proclaimed. "This…will be the one exception."

With that short statement, Kakyoin turned on his heel and sprinted back past Abdul down the hallway. Joseph leapt to his feet and yelled after the redhead, "You are sorely mistaken if you think you can outrun me!" He bolted after Kakyoin at full speed.

Polnareff sat on the ground in front of the couch, as he sighed. "Man, that Mr. Joestar is something else…"

"I'll say," The woman in pink agreed, standing up and walking over to the table next to the couch.

"I've done quite a few female performances myself," The man in red huffed a sigh as he carded his fingers through his hair, "but, running in heels is something I have yet to master."

"I hear ya, Kasey!" The woman in blue nodded. "I've been doing this for years, and even I can't run in heels that have platforms longer than an inch!"

"Miss Kanao," Kasey began, turning to the woman in pink, "how long has Mr. Joestar been dressing in drag like this?"

"Uh, I haven't asked him…" She responded.

"Wait…Miss Kanao..." Polnareff turned to the woman in pink as his eyes widened, "_Suki_…?"

The brown-haired girl raised a finger to her lips and winked, removing her hand from the table to reveal a single cigarette that she had placed. After a moment of realization, Polnareff winked back.

"Alright! Both of you are out!" Joseph announced, walking back into the lobby with Kakyoin trailing behind him, tied up with Hermit Purple. After being released, the honor student removed his hat with a sigh and knelt next to Polnareff, who was in the process of fixing his hair back into its usual style. "Man, you two are no good at this!" Mr. Joestar said with a laugh, taking his hat off and fanning himself with it as he sat back on the couch. "It doesn't even feel like you two were even _trying_ to blend into your surroundings!"

"Like you can say that!" Polnareff shot back.

"Jotaro and Suki are still out there, eh?" Joseph wondered with a hand on his chin. "Have they got their own plans? Or, have they formed an alliance?" He directed his voice to Abdul, who had since approached the couch. "Abdul!"

"They have both already started playing, yes," The fortune teller replied. "Actually, if you would direct your eyes to the table…"

Looking at the table, Joseph's eyes widened. "What?! When did that happen?"

"Likely when you went rushing after me," Kakyoin hypothesized, "and left the table unmanned."

"Hmm…But why wouldn't they come out after they won the game…?" The old man asked no one in particular.

"Weren't you the one who made the rule that one cigarette counts for one person?" Abdul queried. "Whether they're working together or not, each of them has to place a cigarette on the table."

"Right," Mr. Joestar agreed, "but, _one _of them had to put the cigarette here, so why wouldn't they just come out? Maybe they wanna see how long they can hide from me, or…" He grinned, "Maybe one doesn't want to _finish _without the other."

The woman in pink snickered as her cheeks grew red. Joseph turned to her with a knowing gaze, as the woman's eyes widened. "Uh, ha ha…" She laughed nervously.

"Your perverted sense of humor screwed you over," The woman in blue shrugged with a sneer.

"Shut _up_, Silva," The woman in pink pleaded through a forced smile.

"Well, I may have noticed you, but you _did _put the cigarette on the table before I noticed," Joseph admitted. "Unless, that isn't _yours_…"

"No, she put it there. I saw her do it," Polnareff chimed in.

"As did I," Abdul added.

"So did me and Silva!" Kasey agreed heartily, pumping his fist.

"I guess you get the point, then, Suki," The old man conceded.

"Sweet!" The brunette grinned.

"But, the game is still afoot!" Joseph proclaimed, replacing his hat on his head and rubbing his hands together. "Alright, time to see what he's got, 'cause I'm ready! I'm gonna catch you, Jotaro!"

"Do you mind resuming our conversation from before?" Kasey asked meekly.

"Oh, right," Mr. Joestar responded, his expression becoming serious, "where were we?"

Keeping a close eye on his surroundings, Joseph continued to chat with the man in red. Kakyoin looked about the lobby from his place on the floor. _But...Where is Jotaro? _The honor student thought,_ I assumed he'd be milling around...But, surely to notice someone so tall...But then again, we didn't even notice Jotaro at the start point..._ Looking towards the table, he saw an entire box of cigarettes sitting next to Suki's single cigarette. "Mr. Joestar!"

Seeing where Kakyoin's eyes were directed, Joseph turned to the table. "Wha-! What!?"

"When did that happen!?" Polnareff shouted, his expression equally shocked.

"W-Where is he?" Kakyoin asked, looking about frantically.

"This is ridiculous! I have no idea where he is, still!" Mr. Joestar complained.

Spotting movement out of the corner of her eye, Suki looked down at the floor to spot a large man covered in flour, perfectly matching the stark coloration of the floor, crawling on his elbows and covered in barely noticeable footprints. The man looked up at the girl, his blue eyes making direct contact with hers, as he slowly brought a finger to his lips. Suki's eyes widened, and she bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"Mr. Joestar, I'll be right back," Suki announced, as she walked towards the front desk.

Joseph merely raised an eyebrow before he sighed. "I can't believe this... Did he manage to outfox me, of all people...?"

The girl came back with two green towels, wiping her face off with one of them and throwing the other over her shoulder. "Isn't that what placing the cigarettes on your table without you noticing means...?"

"By that logic, I think both Jotaro _and _Suki managed to outfox you, Mr. Joestar," Kakyoin explained.

"Heheh, only barely, though..." Suki smiled sheepishly.

"Don't sell yourself short, Suki," Abdul explained. "He was completely fooled."

"You don't have to tell her _again_!" Joseph stood, taking a step towards Abdul. Not feeling solid ground under his heel, he looked down and spotted his grandson.

"Seriously!? Jotaro!?" Polnareff exclaimed.

"Nice work, champ," Suki congratulated.

Eyeing the two towels she had on her person as he rose to his knees, Jotaro raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why'd you get-" His question was cut off by Suki throwing the unused towel at his face, completely blanketing his vision in darkness. He could hear her stifle a laugh when he sighed.

"I thought you were gonna catch it!" She said.

"Warn me next time," He responded, removing the towel and beginning to wipe his face.

"Oh? When's 'next time' supposed to be?" She flashed a naughty grin.

He pulled his hat down. "Dammit, would you just-"

"Jotaro!" Joseph yelled. Jotaro pushed his hat back up and rolled his eyes, continuing to rub off the flour as Star Platinum phased into existence and began to dust off his back. The delinquent didn't seem to mind the shouts of the old man. "That doesn't even count as a disguise!"

"Shut up. A win's a win. And I'm not hearing that from you, old man," Jotaro snapped.

"Besides..." Suki started, moving to her bag that she had left at the start point.

"'Disguise. Noun. A means of altering one's appearance or concealing one's identity,'" Kakyoin rattled off.

"Ah, you beat me to it!" Suki said, turning and walking back to the sofa.

"Do you just memorize dictionary definitions like this?" Polnareff asked.

The honor student smiled sheepishly. "It's a little bit difficult not to, when you're working part-time as an English tutor."

"Well, I guess that was kind of fun," Jotaro stated as he rose to his feet, throwing his towel at Joseph's face, "but disguises are boring. It's not something I could keep up 24/7. I'll just stick with taking my enemies head on and punching their faces in. That alright with you? What I'm saying is just let me do what I've always done. On that note..." He stood up and looked about, "where did those Stand users go?"

"Stand users?" Polnareff asked.

"They responded with surprise when Joseph caught you with Hermit Purple," Kakyoin explained. "To any ordinary person, it would just look like you couldn't move anymore because another person held his hand out to you. I may be making assumptions, but I don't believe that would warrant a 'Shock!'" As he repeated the phrase, he mimicked the gesture the man and the woman in blue had performed.

"They're the guys who were outside the door last night. I know it," Jotaro asserted.

"Suki," Joseph turned to her with a grave face, "they knew about Whit, and they were talking about enemy Stand users that would attack us in Egypt. Who were they?"

"All will be explained in due time, Mr. Joestar," She replied with a knowing smile.

"When's that?" Polnareff asked, breaking the silence.

"Well, I don't think it would be a good idea to talk about this out in the open, so I thought just after we got back to the room? Maybe after we've changed back into our regular clothes?" She suggested, lapsing into a sheepish smile.

The Frenchman sighed. "Jeez, don't scare me like that. You sounded like that bellhop bastard for a moment there."

"Let's head back to the room, then," Kakyoin suggested. Polnareff and Suki nodded as the three stood up, Jotaro following close behind as they made their way back to Mr. Joestar's room.

"Mr. Joestar," Abdul walked over to his friend, a clean towel and a camera in his hand.

"Oh, Abdul...How did it go?" The old man asked, accepting the cloth and cleaning his face of the heavy makeup.

"Well..." Abdul started, handing the camera to Joseph, "see for yourself."

As Joseph began to look through the pictures that had been taken of the events of the game, he remembered the last conversation he had had with his daughter before he left on the journey.

* * *

"Papa..." Holly called weakly from her futon. Joseph knelt down next to her as she held out a camera to him. "Could I ask you for something?"

"...What's this?" The father asked.

"I'd like you to take some pictures of Jotaro for me, Papa. And of his two new friends. I want to see the kind of fun times you have on your journey..."

Joseph smiled gently and ruffled his daughter's hair slightly. "I understand, Holly."

* * *

"Man, these pics turned out pretty great!" Joseph enthused.

"Are you sure about that...?" Abdul asked, looking over the old man's shoulder. "All the pictures of Jotaro are of him crawling."

"That's fine! It's cute! Gap appeal!" Mr. Joestar explained.

"Honestly, when I noticed him, it was utterly terrifying..." Abdul shook his head. As Joseph flicked to a photograph of himself talking with Kasey, as Suki and Silva watched from where they were situated, the Egyptian questioned, "What about those two Stand users in the shot? Kasey and…Silva, I believe?"

"Ah, yeah, them...We could just say they're some tourists we ran into," Joseph said.

_If that man is truly who I think it was…and he himself noted that he had ties to Whit, then…_Abdul thought. "If Whit is to be believed, then this journey will contain events of even greater magnitude than we had first thought."

Joseph brought a hand to the back of his left shoulder, his expression contemplative. "It just might, Abdul." Breathing a sigh, he stood and began to walk back to the hotel room, his friend following close behind.

Once they arrived and everyone had changed, Suki carefully explained what exactly had happened on her end leading up to the game.

* * *

"Man, this is _way_ too big for me…" Suki muttered, looking at herself in the mirror. The red belly dancer outfit she had donned was clearly designed with a larger body type in mind. "Did…Did Mr. Joestar expect one of the guys to wear this?" Shaking her head, she decided to work with what she had and exited the bathroom. "Good luck, guys!" She called behind her as she stepped out of the hotel room, not even sparing a glance back as she shut the door behind her. The woman quickly picked up her stride as she walked down the hall, formulating a plan of attack in her head as she turned the corner on her heel.

"Oof!" Suki grunted in pain as she ran into someone. Opening her eyes as she sat up, she saw a person dressed in a very similar outfit to the one she was wearing, albeit with golden bangles adorning the wrists and ankles and a deep blue color dominating the cloth. The clothing was also considerably tighter on the wearer she had encountered, accentuating very pale skin. "Ah, I'm so sorry, ma'am! I should've been watching where I was going!"

"Ma'am...?" Looking closer at the person she had barreled into, Suki saw that the person was no woman, but a gangly man.

"Oh, uh..." The woman started.

"W…" The man tipped his head back and laughed boisterously, "Wa ha ha! I _do _make a convincing lady, after all!"

"Kasey!" A blond woman with silver eyes in a milky pink version of the outfit with belts criss-crossing over the legs walked around the same corner the man had. Suki noted the woman in pink was also wearing clothes that were too tight for her, as she leaned down to look at the two grounded people, puffing out her cheeks and narrowing her eyes. "Bah, you had me all worried with the yelling and the laughing."

"Hah," The man huffed a sigh, his black hair falling forward and covering one of his deep purple eyes, "Well, Silva, worried or not, you owe me. I got this gal to believe I'm going to college to get more knowledge, instead of going to Jupiter to get more stupider."

"Wait a sec…" Suki closely examined the man in front of her. "I…know you from somewhere…"

"You know her?" The woman raised a hand to her mouth in surprise as she leaned back.

"Hm hm, perhaps this will refresh your memory," The man pushed his hair back from his face and flashed a polite smile. "You borrowed quite a bit from the library, but is _Paulie, Gam and Me! _to your liking? That one seems to be hit-or-miss for most patrons."

_That one book I borrowed from the _train… Suki thought. "Curt…Curt Kobain? You're that conductor from the Roundabout, the one with the three brothers!"

"In the flesh, Miss Kanao," The man affirmed with a devilish smirk. "At the time they were unable to do so, but, please, if you would allow my brothers to introduce themselves."

Curt rose to his feet and held his hand out to Suki. After accepting it and standing herself, the man retracted his hand.

The man placed his hands on his hips and laughed loudly, giving a firm salute and standing at attention with a cheeky grin.

"Captain Kristovo Kobain of 174th Infantry Brigade of United States Army Forces Command, reporting! I'll gladly serve, even in the afterlife! It's a pleasure to meet you, Suki, and fight alongside you in the crusade against Dio!" He announced with the charisma of a commanding general.

The man then heaved a sigh and allowed his hair to fall forward and cover one eye, as he folded his arms and pursed his lips. "I'm Dagro Kobain. I'm a thespian, but people call me 'Casanova'. You probably don't believe me now, but if I still had my own chords, I'd have you begging on your knees. At least, that's what people told me," He huffed with a matter-of-fact tone.

Pushing his hair back from his face, the man bowed. "I have already introduced myself, but it is a pleasure to once again make your acquaintance, Miss Kanao," Curt said, standing up straight.

"He's Kasey to me, though, and he is to everyone else, so you better call him that, too!" The blonde woman explained, putting a hand on her hip and poking her chest with her thumb. "And I'm Silva! It's nice to meetcha!"

Suki took a moment to turn over everything she had just learned in her head. "I have…many questions, but I'll start with 'What the hell are you doing here?'"

"Well, Mr. Houston explained to me that it would be best to tell you in due time, not at this particular moment," Curt said.

Suki groaned. "He roped _you _in, too?"

"Don't misunderstand," Silva chimed in, pouting. "He gave us a very clear out, but we chose to go all-in. Any way we can fight Dio, we're gonna do it."

"Uh-_huh_…" Suki agreed with uncertainty.

"For the moment, though, we need to speak to Mr. Joestar. Rather, I need to relay information Mr. Houston asked me to give to him," Curt stated, scratching his arm.

"Why can't he do it him-" Suki stopped herself, "wait, let me guess: he is, at present, preoccupied with many an other endeavor. Right?"

"Wow, you even got the wording right!" Silva enthused, putting her hands on her cheeks. "How'd you guess?"

"…Lucky guess," The younger woman deadpanned. "Back on topic, though, if you've got critical information, we need to get it to Mr. Joestar as soon as possible. Knowing him, though, he would probably get suspicious of you, if I said someone had info Whit wanted to tell us."

"Isn't that always the way?" Dagro asked, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes, "Why would he be suspicious?"

"The only other person who knew about Whit that we've met was Enyaba, and she was a pretty devout follower of Dio," Suki noted. "I can be a bit too trusting of people, so it wouldn't be a surprise if they immediately thought we should leave if I brought you guys up."

"What a pain," Silva muttered, scratching her leg. She perked up a moment later as she explained, "Oh, hey! Why don't we just play along with that game that you guys talked about earlier?"

"But we weren't…" Suki folded her arms. "So, _you _were listening in on us? I assume that was you guys last night, too."

"You'd be right," Silva answered simply.

"Way to keep confidential information _confidential_, Silva…" Dagro sighed.

"We weren't gonna do anything to 'em, Kasey. If there's no harm meant or done, Suki won't bat an eye," Silva said with a shrug. She then smiled deviously. "How do you think Whit's managed to keep in her good books, even with all the stalking he's done?"

"Hah! You've got a point there, Silva!" Kristovo laughed.

Suki sighed. "Sure. I guess I'm _not_ standing right here, then."

"Anyhow," Silva started, turning back, "we could walk in with you and talk to Mr. Joestar when we get close!"

"Somehow that would make you less suspicious?" Suki asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"I…I can help with that…" Curt spoke quietly, fidgeting with his hands. Meeting Suki's confused gaze, he mumbled, "I'm Nirvan. The youngest."

"So, even your baby brother got tangled up with this, huh?" Suki asked.

"He wanted to come along and help. I couldn't stop him, once I had a bit of assistance keeping everyone in my mind," Curt explained.

"How…?" The brunette asked.

"Sorry, but that is no-kay info for you to know, little lady!" Kristovo proclaimed, as he and Silva each formed an "X" across their chests.

"But, we digress," Curt said. "Nirvan's Ever Minded can twist the memories of others. If he can get close to Mr. Joestar, my brother can make him recall perhaps running into us as helpful allies at one point."

"That…He can just _do _that?" Suki queried.

"It's just the memory, though, so how he chooses to perceive the memory is up to him. I have high hopes for little Nirvan, though," After giving his explanation, Nirvan grabbed the veil on his head and brought it over his face, covering his red cheeks. "Curt, _stop it_…" Curt brushed the veil back over his hair and smiled sheepishly. "He tends to grow very shy when receiving praise, so I guess I shouldn't announce it from the mountaintops."

"Okay, well, if we're gonna do this…" Suki started, "I wanna make the most of this little alliance. This outfit is a bit too loose for me, and you seem to be a bit uncomfortable in your own outfits, right?"

The two shrugged stiffly. "These outfits are a bit too tight for us!" Kristovo agreed. "Are you suggesting we do a little swap-around?"

"You can give your outfit to Kasey, he can give his outfit to me, and I can give mine to you!" Silva added, putting her hands on her hips. "Plus," She pouted, leaning forward with a hand on her chin, "you could do with a little makeup…" Suki was silent. "You…_do _know how to put makeup on, right?" The blonde asked, tilting her head. The brunette slowly shook her head. "Well," Silva gestured to the two of them to follow her, as they walked down the first floor hallway to a room relatively close to the entrance to the lobby, "I can teach you a bit, and give you a few of my stray supplies. Dang, I feel bad, I haven't even torn the plastic off…"

"Anyways," The blonde turned and walked backwards towards the door with a grin, as Curt pulled the key out, "in the words of my mentor, 'Makeup is for women who want husbands. It is for women who want to leech the souls of their dead lovers...And collect the inheritance of their ex-boyfriends who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. If men find out that we can rearrange the bones of our face, we're finished. We might as well pack our bags and go to the nunnery. There will be nothing left for us here!'"

"Is that word-for-word?" Suki asked with a skeptical look.

"She was very passionate about our craft…" Silva admitted with a laugh. Entering the small hotel room, Silva all but flung herself into the bathroom and shut the door behind her, leaving Suki alone with Curt.

"So, what exactly did you want to tell Mr. Joestar?" Suki asked.

"Ah, well, this should become common knowledge to all of you in the group. You see, it's this:" Curt's expression turned grave as his voice grew quiet. "Before you even enter Dio's stronghold, gather as many allying Stand users as humanly possible. Some will be friends, some will be previous enemies. Regardless, it is imperative that you keep an open mind, in order to defeat the many enemy Stand users Dio has called forth." The man took a deep breath and spoke his next words slowly. "If you fail to do this, you will _all _meet with a terrible fate."

* * *

In an off-road driving through the desert, after meeting with the Crusaders…

"Hey, Kasey. I've got a question." Silva said.

"What's that, Silva, my dear?" Curt responded, smiling at her but keeping his eyes on the road.

"How come you count stealing from Dio as stealing from the mafia?" She asked, looking out the window to her right.

"Well, my dear Silva, are you well-versed on the dictionary definition of a 'mafia boss'?" He asked. When Silva shook her head, he continued, "A mob boss, crime lord, king pin, crime boss, or even Don, is a leader of a criminal organization. While they may not call themselves a mafia in words, they _do _partake in less-than-legal affairs on a day-to-day basis as a collective. Dio's influence is spread across the world, and those he keeps in contact with operate under a complex and ruthless behavioral code. No matter how much they may choose to deny it, they are a mafia, albeit with an almost religious devotion to their leader."

"They certainly aren't like the mafias I've seen, though," Silva mused with a smirk. Her expression hardened almost imperceptibly as she continued. "No mafia's ever managed to get to me. Not before this one. Anything they've got has my name on it, and that's a promise."

Curt sighed with a smile. "You may very well get us killed at this rate."

"Hey, I'm careful, Kasey, we've been over this!" She turned back to Curt with a pout. "You don't seriously still think that selling makeup has been my core source of income all these years, do you?"

"Hence why I said 'may,' Silva. Hence why I said 'may'. That applies to percentage possibilities of less than even one percent."

"Hmm, hmm, you're such an enabler, you know that?" Silva said, intertwining her fingers with Curt's free hand.

"Is that a _bad _thing?" He asked, glancing at her with a knowing glint in his eye.

"Not at all."

Several minutes of silence passed, save for the sound of the motor running through the coarse desert sands.

The blonde looked back to the younger woman in the backseat, who had been preoccupied with threading red string through black fabric in an extremely intricate pattern. Despite the shaking of the car, her hands moved with self-assured movements that never seemed to stray from their marks.

"You nervous?" Silva asked.

"Not at all," The previously silent girl replied, scratching at the bandages that wound around her head, obscured by her black curls of hair. She looked up from her work briefly to give a confident smile, her blue eyes glinting in the midday sun. "If anything, I'd say I'm quite mentally prepared for what's in store."

Silva smiled and turned back in her seat. "Good to hear, Michel."

* * *

_Those warring against the turning gears of destiny are slowly gravitating to the one focal point…_

_Where The World, representing the end and __the potential of perfect union with the ultimate power of the universe, lies in wait…_

_They will converge with the warriors of fate, those who have engaged in combat with The World many, many times…_

_The Magician, representative of skill and thought…_

_The Hermit, representative of introspection and independence…_

_The Hierophant, representative of wisdom and convention…_

_The Chariot, representative of resolve and initiative…_

_The Fool, representative of new beginnings and adventure…_

_The Star, representative of hope and renewal…_

_Alongside them, the Knight of Cups, representative of opportunity and change, battles against the slowly tightening grip of the future… _

_The dominos are in place… _

_Now to watch them fall._

* * *

Chapter Sixteen - Ashes of Dreams

-END-

|To Be Continued|\|/

* * *

**Fun fact: The disguise game is actually from an Omomuki High Jump doujin known as "Underground 2"! I own nothing of what they have made, I thought it would just be a fun side story to bring in. Their works never fail to bring a smile to my face, I highly recommend you guys check them out, too! I know you can purchase them somewhere, but I can't for the life of me figure out where. Please support them as well, they make great content! If you want to follow the links below, you can place the reddit thread after the reddit html, and the link for the actual story I referenced after the html for imgur.**

**Also the scene where Jotaro and Kakyoin watch a garbage shark movie is a reference to a really nice picture drawn by herzspalter on tumblr, who gave me their blessing to reference it in this chapter. Check out their work, I _love _their Jojo drawings, they're so stylized and colorful.****: D If you want to check out their work, just put "herzspalter" before the link to the tumblr homepage (herzspalter. tumblr. com)**

**Thanks again for all of your support, and I would like to continue to thank Squirrelj and WindSymphony for being great editors that have helped me improve by the day! Hope you enjoyed this, and I will see you in the next chapter!**

**-Bluebow**

**Reddit Thread for Omomuki HJ - /****r/StardustCrusaders/comments/73g4r3/fanart_under_ground_zero_part_1_part_2_doujin/**

**Underground 2 on imgur- /a/4GGG8**


	2. Chapter 17 - No Tears

**WARNING: This story contains instances of graphic violence, gore, coarse language, and sexual content. A warning will exist at the beginning of a chapter containing anything explicit, and will be sectioned off by another warning right beforehand, and another line right where the explicit scene ends. You have been warned.**

* * *

_Egypt! A country known for its longest history among the nations of today. Even millennia after its ancient glory, Egypt serves to inspire and mystify those who visit. With desert sands making up more than 90% of its land and having one inch or less of rain each year, it is no surprise that more than 9/10's of the population lives by the Nile River, the longest river in the world._

And yet, despite these harsh conditions, a group of people drove an off-road vehicle through the dusty dunes.

In the back of this vehicle overwhelmed by male population…sat one lone woman. No longer was she the little girl who had started the story, but an adult, and an integrated part of the group of stalwart heroes she had aspired to support. Allowing the music from the tape deck, graciously lent to her by her best friend, to pull her into concentration, Suki dutifully formed a variety of different water weapons in her hands, from knives to staves to bows. She found she could not make most of the firearms she had been able to before, save for one: the rocket launcher.

_Knight, why is this happening? _Suki wondered, turning to her Stand. The watery wraith folded her arms and shook her head, as confused as her user. _How am I supposed to…fucking…_She drew a hand through her hair with a sigh, _save the _universe_, if I can't get my shit together?_ Suki turned upon feeling a tap on her shoulder, removing her earbuds and locking eyes with Kakyoin.

"I just remembered, did you take your tablets this morning?" The honor student asked.

"I was just about to do that," She said, reaching into her bag beside her and pulling out the small bottle as Knight of Cups rejoined her figure without a word. Suki felt a frown pull at her mouth as she examined the medication prescribed after her unfortunately-timed fainting spell following the incident with Steely Dan.

"Jeez, Kakyoin, you don't need to mom her," Polnareff commented as the girl popped a pill into her mouth and swallowed with a grimace.

"I may not need to, but she specifically asked that I remind her," The honor student defended.

The silver-haired man rolled his eyes. "Sure, sure, you-"

"He's telling the truth," Suki expressed. "I've gone past noon without taking it before, so I kind of need the reminder."

"How do you forget to take these things?" Polnareff inquired.

"Look, it's like forgetting to brush your teeth in the morning or at night. Haven't either of you done that?" The woman asked.

"No," Polnareff denied.

"I may have before," Kakyoin affirmed, "but the medication the doctor gave you to help with your anemia should be of more critical importance, shouldn't it?"

"Y-Yeah…" Suki mumbled, fidgeting slightly.

"Well, I wouldn't leave reminding you to take your meds up to just one guy. Why don't you get Jotaro to do the same thing?" Polnareff suggested, nudging the delinquent's back. "Eh, Jotaro?"

Suki leaned over the seat in front of her as she looked at the man in question. "It's fine, Jotaro. I don't wanna be-"

The thug opened his eyes, slowly blinking as they adjusted to the bright light. He rubbed at his eyes and yawned.

"Oh, you were sleeping…" Suki realized.

"Yeah," Jotaro muttered, rubbing at his eyes again. "Had a weird fucking dream, too…"

"You did?" Kakyoin asked.

"Ooh, do tell!" Polnareff enthused.

"…Don't feel like it," Jotaro dismissed, letting his head tip back.

"Aw, come on, I'm curious!"

"No."

As the Frenchman continued to badger the delinquent, Suki chanced a look over Kakyoin's shoulder to see him tensely writing a letter. The redhead seemed to be putting all of his focus on keeping the pencil in his hand steady against the instability of the sand traveling under the vehicle's wheels, carefully drawing one English letter after another. Suki's eyes were drawn to the top of the page, holding the name of the addressee: one "Hanako Garner." The girl bit her lip.

_Hanako Garner…He…He can't mean…?_

* * *

Suki took a deep breath, releasing it in a sigh. "Doesn't the market air smell great in the afternoon?"

"It just smells like desert to me," her friend Hanako commented, casting her eyes about the various wares lining the many stalls in the street.

"Come on, Hana-chan, take the time to stop and smell the roses! Or…" Suki stopped walking in front of Hanako and turned to her, scratching at her head, "well, I've heard of the phrase 'desert rose,' but I've never seen them around these parts...Maybe stop and smell the Pentas?"

"The...The what now?" Hanako asked, blinking slowly.

"Pentas, or 'star flowers,'" Suki began, an excited glint lighting up her eyes, "are really pretty flowers! They come in bundles and bundles of pink, red, and white buds that have five petals each. They look like stars, that's why they're called that." She brought a finger to her chin, tilting her head as she continued, "I don't really remember what they smell like, but you can get lost in just looking at them!"

"Uh-huh," The green-eyed girl replied distantly, her gaze locked on a small jewelry shop across the street.

Suki's expression grew concerned as she looked to her recent friend. "Hana-chan, are you okay? Lately, you've been...uhm…"

Hanako turned back to the youth. As if seeing Suki for the first time, the green-eyed girl blinked and shook her head, a fatigued smile gracing her lips. "I'm fine, Akizuki. Just a bit tired...is all."

Suki nodded, unconvinced, before asking, "Was there something you wanted from that jewelry store?"

"...Not necessarily _wanted_, but…" Hanako trailed off, walking off in the direction of the stall in question. Suki followed close behind.

The table, covered with a surprisingly clean pink cloth, was littered with several different black cases with glass tops and walls, all filled by one bracelet, necklace, ring, or pair of earrings. The gold and silver baubles glinted brilliantly in the sunlight, but, as Suki saw, Hanako's attention had attached itself to a simplistic bronze ring with a blood-red gemstone in the middle. The girl's green eyes grew hazy as she stared at the accessory. Gazing at the ring herself, Suki winced, as the color of the jewel was much-too-similar to the eye color of-

"Ah, interested in that fine ring, my dears?" The merchant's jovial voice snapped both Suki and Hanako out of their thoughts.

"Oh, w-we're just browsing!" Suki tittered, scratching her cheek embarrassedly.

"Well, take your time," The man said, his mood falling quickly from the denial.

After the shopowner walked away to speak with a different customer, Suki turned to Hanako and murmured, "Got your eye on someone?"

"Hmm?" The other responded, blinking a few times. "Oh, ah, not in particular. But…" A slight flush bloomed on her cheeks as she trailed off, brows furrowed in confusion.

"But…?" Suki parroted expectantly.

Chuckling, Hanako shoved her hands in her pockets and looked away from the display. "But it's a nice ring, don't you think?"

Suki glanced back at the ring one more time before stepping away from the table, encouraging Hanako to follow as they continued further into the market. "I guess so," She responded, wistfully thumbing her pendant through her shirt. She then took her hand off her necklace, turning to Hanako with a grin. "Well, come on! Let's keep looking around!"

The green-eyed girl nodded as she met Suki's eyes, beginning to follow the youth bounding her way through the market once more.

* * *

Suki blinked twice as she recalled that memory. She reached to tap the honor student's shoulder, intending to ask him if this was just coincidence, or how in the world he knew the same girl, when Polnareff called her name. The brunette instantly grew skeptical as she witnessed him try to pretend he hadn't been smirking.

"How're the English lessons going? For your reading and writing, I mean," The Frenchman asked.

"They're going...well...?" She replied.

"Can I test you?"

Suki's eyes narrowed. "Why...?"

"I'm just curious to see if the student has surpassed the teacher, eh, Kakyoin?" Polnareff said, reaching over Suki and nudging the honor student's shoulder. Kakyoin merely shuffled closer to the window. He appeared to be too deep in concentration to notice he was being addressed. "You're no fun," The silver-haired man muttered.

_I cannot_ begin_ to imagine where he's going with this, _Suki thought, glancing to Jotaro in the seat next to the redhead. The delinquent stared listlessly out the window at the shifting sands. She sighed before stopping the tape deck and placing the device and accompanying earbuds in her bag. She looked to Polnareff and said, "Alright, shoot."

"Okay," The Frenchman started, "what does Y-E-S spell?"

"Yes," Suki responded.

"What does E-Y-E-S spell?"

"E-yes," Suki breathed out a quick response to the question.

Polnareff gave a startled chuckle, not thinking he heard her correctly. He asked again, "What does E-Y-E-S spell?"

"Ee-yes?" Suki tried.

The Frenchman tried to stifle his laughter. Clearly he failed, as his snickering managed to draw Kakyoin's attention from his letter to the backseat. "What is happening?" He asked in a deadpan tone.

"What does Y-E-S spell?" Polnareff asked Suki through his laughter.

"Yes," Suki stated.

"What does E-Y-E-S spell?"

"...Ee-yes," Suki proclaimed. Polnareff began to laugh harder. Kakyoin sighed, despite a smirk tugging at his lips. "What are you crying for?" Suki asked Polnareff, spotting the tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. "What are you do-"

"Okay, try again," Polnareff said, desperately trying to quiet himself down. "What does ye- what does Y-E-S spell?"

"...Yes," Suki answered.

"What does E-Y-E-S spell?"

The woman paused as Polnareff couldn't stop himself from giggling, waiting eagerly for her answer. Her answer was, "...Ees?" The Frenchman wheezed, while Kakyoin snickered, covering his mouth with a hand. "Ay-yes?" Suki attempted again.

"I can't breathe..." Polnareff laughed. "Okay-"

"E-Y-E-S. Ee-yes!" Suki spelled out. Kakyoin finally laughed. The brunette looked between the laughing men in sheer confusion. "I don't understand, what-"

"Look, listen," Jotaro interjected. He turned toward Suki and pointed at his eyes. "What are these?"

"Those are your eyes," Suki replied.

"Eyes. How do you think that word is spelled?" The thug asked.

Suki's expression tightened slightly in thought before realization painted her features. "Why the hell would they spell it that way?" She wondered.

"Got me," Jotaro shrugged, turning back in his seat.

"Aw, way to ruin the fun, Jotaro," Polnareff complained. The delinquent folded his arms and stared out the window. The Frenchman scratched the back of his neck. "C'mon, it was just a joke."

"...It wasn't funny," The thug sighed.

"I'll admit, it might have gotten a bit out of hand," Kakyoin confessed. He turned to Suki. "On Polnareff's and my behalf, I'm sorry about that."

"Hey, I can apologize myself, you know," Polnareff said before looking to the woman. "I'm sorry, too. I dragged that out a bit too long."

"I-It's fine, really," Suki replied to both men with a sheepish smile. "I was more confused than offended. Honestly, it was a little funny."

Polnareff ruffled the brunette's hair. "Glad you're not too upset about it," He said with a grin.

Suki gave a small half-smile before turning her gaze back to Jotaro. _Is it just me, or is he tenser than usual...? _She wondered.

Suddenly, the car pulled to a stop. Joseph turned to the rest of the group from the steering wheel and announced, "We're here."

"Here?" Suki asked, climbing out of the vehicle. All around them was desert, with no landmark of note save for the unending sea of dunes.

"It should be about time," Jotaro said, stepping out of the off-roader and looking out across the desert.

The sound of whirring helicopter blades reached everyone's ears, as they looked to the horizon for the source of the noise.

"Wh-What's that?" Polnareff asked.

"Well, clearly," Suki stated, "it's a private jet."

The Frenchman put his hands on his hips. "Are you being sarcastic with me?"

"Sarcasm? What's that?" Suki asked with a mischievous grin.

"They're here," Joseph said.

"It _is _a helicopter!" Polnareff announced.

"You don't have to state the obvious," Kakyoin expressed. "We can see that."

"That's a helicopter from the Speedwagon Foundation. They're looking for a place to land," The old man explained.

"Speedwagon Foundation? Your old friends who are taking care of Mom back in Japan?" Jotaro wondered, pulling his hat down to secure it against the winds kicked up by the landing aircraft.

"Yeah, that's right," Mr. Joestar affirmed, using his arm to shield his face from the bits of sand flying through the air. "Weren't you listening on the way here?"

"You just said we had 'an important meeting to make' out here in East Bumblefuck of the desert. You didn't say anything about the Speedwagon Foundation," The delinquent recalled, as the helicopter slowly descended toward the ground in front of the group. "Don't tell me we're going for a ride in that helicopter."

"No," Joseph denied. "As much as I'd like to, the crew aren't Stand users. If we were attacked, they would be at risk."

Suki released a breath she didn't realize she had been holding.

"Then why is that helicopter here?" Kakyoin queried.

"Was _no one _listening to me on the way here?" Joseph asked. Abdul turned around at this question with an exasperated expression. "Other than you, Abdul."

"I heard you mention we were going to meet with someone," Polnareff remembered, "but we weren't expecting them to use a helicopter just to bring supplies!"

"That's just it, though. It isn't just supplies," Joseph corrected. "They've brought us a helper."

Varying levels of shock crossed everyone's expressions as they processed this new information.

"What? A helper?" Polnareff asked.

"He has a few personality issues," The old man mentioned, "so it's taken him a while to get here."

"Mr. Joestar!" Abdul accused, approaching the old man. "It's impossible for him to come with us on this trip! There's no way he could be helpful."

"Do you know him, Abdul?" Kakyoin wondered.

"Yeah, very well," The fortune teller said with a nod.

"Hold on," Jotaro piped up. "If he's a helper, that means he's a Stand user, right?"

"He's the Stand user whose Stand suggests the card called The Fool," Mr. Joestar explained.

"The Fool?" Polnareff chuckled. "Hah! That card sounds like an idiot."

"On the contrary," Suki started, "in a tarot deck, The Fool is actually symbolic of a new beginning, with the rest of the major arcana serving as a representation of his journey through the mysteries of life, dubbed 'The Fool's Journey,' as he pursues completeness, represented by The World, at the end. There's also the fact that The Fool is numbered zero in the deck of major arcana. Zero is noted as a number of infinite potential," Polnareff stared at the girl with an utterly baffled expression, before she turned to Abdul with an expectant smile. "Did I miss anything?"

Abdul laughed lightly. "You certainly have your mother's knack for memorizing this kind of information," Suki's grin turned cheeky as she crossed her arms behind her head. The Egyptian turned to Polnareff, his expression growing grave as he cleared his throat. "We're lucky that he's not our enemy," He said, turning back to the helicopter. "You wouldn't be able to beat him."

Polnareff strutted up to Abdul and took the fortune teller's shoulder, turning the robed man towards him. "What'd you say, you asshole? You'd better watch your mouth."

"It's the truth," Abdul expressed without so much as flinching. He then looked down at Polnareff's hand still gripping his shoulder. "And what's with the hand? That hurts."

"Sounding all high-and-mighty and shit…" The Frenchman growled.

"Knock it off already," Suki and Kakyoin scolded simultaneously. The two looked at each other, locking eyes before the woman cast her gaze away first, scratching her cheek. The honor student cleared his throat and stepped toward the helicopter, the rest of the group following suit.

"I don't think having a bad attitude is the end of the world," Suki defended. "I mean, I was pretty incorrigible in the beginning, but I'd like to think I'm at least a little better than when I started."

Abdul sighed, turning to the girl. "Much as I would like to be optimistic, Suki, I don't believe you fully understand who we're dealing with. I…wouldn't even know where to start with him, honestly."

Suki tilted her head confusedly. The helicopter rotors finally slowed to a stop, and the front door of the vehicle opened. Two decently fit men wearing the same green uniform and navy hats stepped out. Each of the hats had a wheel insignia decorating the front with letters that spelled out "SPEEDWAGON" above it. The man with a mop of gray hair who had presumably been piloting the aircraft nodded to the group. Meanwhile, his partner, sporting brown hair, tipped his hat to them.

"Mr. Joestar! Thank goodness you're safe," The brunet greeted as he approached the old man, sticking his hand out.

"Thanks for coming out here. I appreciate it," Joseph said, shaking the copilot's outstretched hand.

'So…" Jotaro started, casting his eyes to each of the employees, "who's the Stand user?" The two turned and gave him their full attention, making eye contact. "I'm asking which one of you is the Stand user," The thug turned to the brown-haired man. "Is it you?"

"No, it's not either of us," The copilot replied, jerking his thumb back to the helicopter. "He's in the back seat."

The SPW member with gray hair opened the back door of the vehicle to reveal a dark green blanket curled up haphazardly in the back seat.

"The back seat…I don't see anyone there," Jotaro said.

"No, he's there," The brunet assured.

Polnareff grinned and made his way past the copilot over to the helicopter. "Hey, hey, hey! You say he's there, but where is he?" The Frenchman turned back and pointed to the back seat with his thumb. "Is he really short or something?"

_If he's covered completely by that blanket, _Suki thought,_ then it must be either a child (worst case scenario) or some kind of animal (also worst case scenario). I would find an animal to be more likely. Considering the hell we went through because no one suspected an infant, I'm not putting all my chips on the ally being a child._

The silver-haired man placed his hands on his hips and examined the inside of the aircraft. "Get the hell out here! Come on!" He taunted, patting the blanket with a heavy hand.

"W-Watch out!" The pilot cautioned.

As Polnareff drew his hand across the seat away from the blanket, he stopped. "Hm?" With a curious expression, he raised his hand from the seat, stretching his thumb and forefinger apart. A clear, gooey liquid connected them. "What's this sticky stuff?"

"'Sticky stuff"…?" Suki wondered aloud.

"You idiot," Jotaro muttered, "that's clear. What you're thinking of is white."

"I mean, I'm not gonna fault you for assuming I've got a lowest-common-denominator thought process, but that surprisingly hadn't crossed my mind," Suki said with a shrug.

"Please, be careful!" The copilot yelped. "The helicopter ride was rough, so he's in a really bad mood."

"Don't get close to him!" Joseph shouted. "I told you, he's got some personality issues!"

"Polnareff, you can't win," Abdul stated.

Polnareff turned around with a shit-eating grin. "And I'm asking where the hell he is-"

Suddenly, the blanket rustled violently and slid quickly out of the back seat. Only as the cloth left the vehicle did Suki see the four tiny white legs underneath, as the helper lunged ferociously at Polnareff's face. The blanket finally fell away as the creature landed on Polnareff's head, revealing…

"Whoa!" The Frenchman yelped. "H-H-H-H-H-He's…"

What had been hiding under the blanket was a blue-eyed black and white Boston Terrier with razor-pointed fangs that he displayed as he snarled in the Frenchman's face.

"…a dog!" Kakyoin finished the sentence.

"Don't tell me this dog is…" Jotaro started.

Joseph nodded. "Yes! He is The Fool Stand's user."

At this point, the dog had mounted Polnareff's head and was yanking his silver hair out in mouthfuls, as Polnareff scrambled to separate the mutt from his face.

Suki rushed up to Polnareff and called out to the canine. "Hey, would you get down? That's no way to-" She snapped, reaching up and trying to pry the dog off of her unfortunate friend's face. Every time she made an attempt to grab the animal, Polnareff kept moving away as he flailed about fruitlessly. "Polnareff, I can't help you if you won't stand still!"

"His name is Iggy. He loves to tear out human hair by the mouthful," Mr. Joestar explained, bringing a hand to his chin. "We don't know where he was born. When even the dog catchers in New York couldn't get him, Abdul was able to find and finally capture him."

"Gotcha!" Suki shouted victoriously, having finally grasped the dog. "Now, you need to let go, like a good doggy…" She coaxed, trying to dislodge Iggy's iron grip one paw at a time.

"Oh, I just remembered," Joseph announced. "While he's ripping out hair, he likes to…"

A drawn-out squeaking sound reached Suki's ears, followed by a smell she would pay not to remember crawling up her nose like an uninvited pair of spider guests. Her nose crinkled and her face tightened, as Polnareff immediately stopped all flailing, possibly due to shock. Iggy let his body go limp on Polnareff's head.

"…fart in the human's face. He's kind of vulgar," Mr. Joestar explained.

The girl finally managed to pull Iggy off of Polnareff's face, as the Frenchman fell back onto the ground. "Good, you let go," She said, turning the mutt around in her grasp. "There, was that so hard?"

Iggy seemed to scoff as he turned his head away from the girl holding him.

"God damn it!" Polnareff swore, bolting up into a sitting position and glaring at the dog. "You're gonna pay for that!"

Suki rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, there's no need to get so riled up about this," She said, absentmindedly cradling Iggy and scratching behind his ear. "He could've responded better, but you also could've done without giving him that rude awakening."

Polnareff looked at the dog to see him smugly grinning in victory. The Frenchman's own expression twisted into rage as he rose to his feet. "Damn you…Chariot!"

As Silver Chariot burst from Polnareff's body, Suki's face contorted in anger, as she moved Iggy away and prepared to summon her own Stand. Suddenly, the sand around her feet began to swirl around her lower body like a desert tornado, exploding around her and finally taking shape at her back. The figure that manifested from the sand took the shape of a quadrupedal automaton, with paw-like front feet, red and blue cords extending from his front shoulders to his forepaws, separated by golden joint parts, and tribal feathers creating a crown on his head. His mouth was beak-like with sharp, pointed fangs, and what looked like holes where his eyes were supposed to be. What would have been the robot's hind legs were a pair of wheels, each connected by a pair of axles to the main body. The beast made manifest from the sand snarled and roared, as Iggy grinned and wagged his tail in satisfaction.

"Th-That's…" Polnareff began.

"So that's The Fool," Jotaro observed.

"We met an orangutan Stand user off the shore of Singapore, but…" Kakyoin said.

"We really should stop questioning these things…" Suki muttered.

"Who the hell do you think you are, you stupid mutt?!" Polnareff yelled as Silver Chariot continued to charge. "Don't make me cut you in half!"

Suki turned fully away from the Frenchman, shielding the dog with her body. "Polnareff, knock it the _fuck_ off!" Iggy quickly scrambled out of Suki's arms onto her shoulder as she shouted. "Hey, wait, no-!"

Silver Chariot sliced The Fool in half…seemingly, until the automaton's sandy insides were revealed, as he roared at Silver Chariot.

"What the?!" Polnareff exclaimed. "It's like it's turning into sand…I-I can't cut it!"

The sand coalesced around the hilt of Silver Chariot's rapier and yanked the opposing Stand up.

"Now it became solid and swallowed up my sword!" Polnareff shouted. The Fool reemerged from the mass of sand that took Silver Chariot's weapon, the sword disappearing with the Stand's reappearance.

"That's…" Kakyoin started.

"Simply put, it's a Stand made of sand," Abdul stated.

"So, it's a…_Stand_?" Suki asked, before casting her gaze to the ground. "God, that was _rubbish_. Do _not _laugh at that…"

"The simpler they are, the stronger they are," Jotaro said. "I'm not sure if I could hit it."

In a feat of extreme physical prowess, Iggy leapt off of Suki's shoulder and landed on Polnareff's face a couple of meters away, knocking the Frenchman to the ground once more and indulging in a gourmet consisting of his gelled up hair.

"Hey! Help!" Polnareff cried, flailing about madly. "Do something about this dog!"

"Sorry, Polnareff," Kakyoin apologized as he tossed his own stray strand of hair with one hand, "but I'm not about to get my hair ripped out, too."

"You monster! Suki, please, can't you help me with this?!" The silver-haired man yelped.

Suki scratched the back of her neck. "Nah, I'm thinking you deserved this one."

Abdul approached the copilot and held out his hand. "Do you have his treats?"

The brunet gave a defeated smile. "If we didn't, we wouldn't have been able to make it here," He admitted, reaching into his pocket.

"Stop! Help me!" Polnareff shouted.

As the copilot removed the small box from his pocket, Iggy's ears perked up, and he turned to look at the two men. Abdul took the box and turned upon hearing Iggy bark as he rushed toward them.

"His sense of smell is incredible," Abdul marveled.

"What is that?" Kakyoin asked, pointing at the box.

The fortune teller pulled out a single strip of what looked to be gum, with "COFFEE" spelled out on the brown wrapper. "Coffee-flavored chewing gum. It's Iggy's favorite treat, and he'll do anything for it."

"Mr. Abdul!" The brunet cautioned, holding his hands out in warning. "Keep the box hidden from-!"

Iggy jumped into the air and snatched the almost full gum carton out of Abdul's hand.

"Oh, no! He got the box!" Abdul exclaimed.

Iggy tore into the box with his teeth and dug into the packed sugary strips, not minding the paper wrappers that would hinder a human being from doing the same.

Joseph walked up with his arms folded. "He loves coffee-flavored chewing gum, but he still won't let his guard down for anyone."

"At least take the paper off first," Abdul said with a sigh.

"There's no way he could actually help us," Kakyoin said, shaking his head.

"Good grief…" Jotaro grumbled.

Polnareff stumbled to his feet, his previously straight hairstyle now a complete mess. "Damn it…"

Suki snickered, covering her mouth with a hand.

"Don't you laugh!" The Frenchman scolded as he desperately tried to straighten his hair out with his hands. "My beautiful hair's been thinned…" It surprisingly took much less time for the man to put his hair back in order, before he turned to Iggy. "You stupid bastard!"

Suki put her hands on her hips and leaned forward. "Well, what would you rather have the alternative be?" She snapped. "You making swiss cheese out of a dog, who, mind you, was called here specifically to help us?" Her expression grew sympathetic as she looked toward the dog. "Bless his heart, the poor thing is probably having a bad day because of the rough trip…"

"_Poor thing_?" Polnareff scoffed, pointing at the Boston Terrier. "Look at him! Look at that shit-eating grin he's got! He knows what he did!"

"That doesn't give you an excuse to get violent with an animal," Suki stated, standing up straight and folding her arms.

"Well, while he's eating the gum, he should be fine," The pilot said, beckoning to his partner. "Let's get the supplies out now."

With that, Kakyoin, Abdul, and Polnareff split off to the car, Jotaro and Joseph helped unload the luggage, and Suki stood off to the side with Iggy. She crouched down in front of the dog, who was still gnawing on the wad of gum he had procured.

Suki tilted her head. "You got dragged out here, didn't you?" Iggy swallowed the gum and yawned, resting his head on his paws. The girl scratched under his chin. "I know. I'd be grumpy too, if I got dragged out into the middle of nowhere, as far as I know, without a word of warning." Slowly retracting her hand, she looked off to the side. "It's bad enough that any of us could get hurt or worse, but now there's the possibility of a little guy like you being put in danger too…" She shook her head. "But, desperate times call for desperate measures, and I think you could really help us out," She said, flashing a friendly smile. "I know it'll be tough for a little while, but it'd really be great if we could all be civil until this is all over." Iggy scoffed. Suki put a finger to her chin. "Well, I could offer to get you whatever you want once we're all done. Does that sound good to you?" Iggy's ears twitched as he got up and stretched his body. "Hey, are you even listening?" Iggy padded over to Suki and looked up at her needily, before putting his weight on his back legs and placing his front paws on her leg. "I guess I'll take what I can get," She conceded.

Iggy suddenly twisted around, his nose twitching, as he rushed off. Suki's eyes followed the path the dog blazed to see him dashing over to Joseph, who had unwrapped a strip of gum. Iggy snapped up the strip, involuntarily allowing Joseph to pull the dog into his lap. The old man replaced his hat on his head as he turned to look at Jotaro, Kakyoin, and Abdul standing behind him and converse with them. The pilot stood a fair distance away in front of the group, holding an expensive looking camera. Suki felt a hand land on her head and looked to her left to meet Polnareff's eyes.

"Hey, Mr. Joestar wants to take a picture," The Frenchman said.

Suki's expression became nervous as she cast her eyes in a different direction. "Oh, uh, that's fine. You guys go on ahead and do it."

Polnareff smirked. "It isn't a request," He stated, as he lifted Suki up and under one arm.

"Wha- Hey!" She yelped, before sighing and resting her head in her hand. "Why do I even bother?"

_Well, I _guess_ it could be fun, though…_

* * *

"Say cheese!"

Two women smiled as the camera flashed. Falling out of their plastered-on expressions, they walked over to their comrade who had volunteered to snap the photo and was now fanning the picture through the dry air. The duo looked over their photographer's shoulder as he looked closer at the picture.

"Huh, that's weird…" He muttered, looking at a man who had just entered the open-air bar right next to them. "I don't think I heard him walking by…"

"Oh, really?" As one of the women looked closer at the photo, she noticed a man in what looked to be a crisp white bellhop outfit walking behind the pair in the background of the shot. The individual had an odd grin that made it seem like he knew exactly what mischief he was up to. "Well, we can just retake the picture, dear."

"But the film costs _money_…" The man whined.

Whit chuckled almost silently as he listened to the banter of the three people he had passed. He walked directly up to a stool in front of the counter and sat down without breaking stride.

"Welcome! What'll you be having?" The bartender asked, looking up from the glass he was polishing with a smile.

After perusing the menu for a scant few moments, the blonde responded. "I would enjoy partaking in a tall glass of your finest water, if it would not be too much trouble."

The man behind the counter raised an eyebrow before shrugging and turning to walk into the kitchen. As he waited on his drink, Whit reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a tiny notebook and a pen. He eyed his list of tasks carefully, striking off the ones he had completed under the heading "December 27th".

_Miss Goh should be at her encounter point by this time…Miss Jackson has almost completely recovered and is currently under the watchful gazes of Mr. Kobain and Miss Stein…_He grimaced as he pressed the capped end of the writing utensil to his lips. _Ms. Swift will not be transporting herself in any sense of the word from her location, but-ah, that is something I have yet to accomplish. I must set out about conducting a method through which I can separate her from the group whilst we endeavor to stand against Dio. One would not be able to predict how she would deign to catapult herself into the crossfire of chaos that would ensue, and whether or not that would benefit or hinder us, whatever expense she may come to that would in all hopes _not _be her life. That, and…_He quickly and neatly wrote his next task as another appeared in his mind. He teethed the end of the pen as he closed his eyes. _Miss Moon…What would be the most efficient way of re-involving her…?_

"Is something wrong, sir?" The bartender asked.

Opening his eyes, Whit saw the beverage he had asked for sitting directly in front of him, accented with a lemon wedge on the rim of the glass. Locking eyes with the person across from him and removing the pen from his mouth, he shook his head. "Nothing of import, my good man. I thank you for the drink."

The man behind the counter nodded somewhat uncertainly as he moved to the corner of the bar to speak with one of the few people remaining, who had approached to pay his tab.

Staring down into his water and replacing the writing utensil and notebook, Whit recalled a small memory scratching at the walls of his mind. Taking a sip of the drink, he allowed it to wash over him with a wave of nostalgia.

* * *

"What sort of component is this, may I ask?" The blond man asked, reaching across the counter from his seat towards a small, metal component that blinked red at him.

"Don't touch that," The woman with ruby-red hair snapped uncharacteristically, not even looking up from the device she was tightening a screw into, as the rest of her supplies sat scattered on the bar's surface. "...It's a bomb."

"A…_bomb_?" Brando asked, retracting his hand.

"Yep…" Lyn responded.

"And you find it to be in the best of interests of all involved to simply leave it sitting out in the open?" He questioned.

"I was gonna…put it in a box…" She explained with a yawn.

"Might I ask, Miss Lyn," Brando began, "what exactly would a box accomplish in this scenario?"

"It would accomplish…it not being out in the open…if you're so worried about that…" She muttered.

Placing both his hands back in his lap, Brando nodded at a small red-tinted container with the word "CAUTION" taped across its sides and lid. "May I probe at what that could be?"

"That's…" Lyn turned to her partner as the corners of her lips turned up in a sort of maniacal grin, "for if things get _really _hardcore…" With a shrug, she added. "Or if you wanna blow up buildings."

"No one's blowing up buildings," The owner of the coffeehouse remarked sternly, walking out of the kitchen and stepping over to the radio on the back shelf.

"You just wanna suck the joy out of everything…" The redhead grumbled, shaking her head.

"You just want to blow up my shop, since you keep working on your damn bombs in here, but you don't hear me complain about that every five minutes," The older man shot back.

"Look, Boss, it was…" Lyn yawned, "_one _time that happened. And I only blew up your counter, not the whole establishment…"

"Is that a recently-acquired device, Boss?" Brando asked, pointing at the radio.

"Well, it's technically my daughters', but since they left it down here, I thought I'd use it to set some ambiance until they come back for it," Boss said, setting the dial to let the appliance play a slow, sweet tune.

"Why'd you only turn it on now, then?" A voice reverberated from the kitchen.

The older man pursed his lips. "You know comments like that come out of your paycheck, right?"

"I was just asking a _question_!" The employee explained.

Rolling his eyes, the shopowner set to polishing the glasses under the counter. Meanwhile, as music played from the radio, Brando found he recognized the melody of the song that was on. The blond man's eyes lit up as he turned to Lyn. "This is…"

"Heh, it's one of my favorites," She chuckled, turning to Brando. "If you're curious, it's called 'I Look to You'…Sung by Whitney Houston."

Hearing it with lyrics for the first time, Brando listened closely to the song. As the song ended, he smiled gently. "Such a beautiful, reassuring, _strong_ composition…If I ever happen upon a time where I cannot control my overwrought condition, I shall…remember you through this piece."

The redhead's expression became surprised as her face heated up. After composing herself, she smiled gently. "That's…really sweet, Brando. Thank you."

"Sheesh, when's the wedding?" Boss snarked, narrowing his eyes at a stray smudge on the glass he had been polishing.

"For the love of God, Frank…" Lyn started, placing a hand on her head, "I told you I'm not looking for that kind of thing…"

"Funny, I don't remember that _always _being the case while you've been here," Frank replied with a knowing smirk.

"Boss, _shut it_…" She responded with a warning tone. "You and I both know why-"

"What's this about Boss and Lyn?" The employee called from the kitchen.

Frank sighed. "Would you pick whether you want to join the conversation or actually _do _your damn job?" He put the glass back on the shelf and walked into the kitchen. "And if you _do _choose option A, at least come into the same room! It's rude to shout at someone from another room."

"Alright, _alright_, Boss," The part-timer conceded.

Brando tilted his head with a questioning expression. "Might I ask-"

"Just…" Lyn stifled a yawn, "just leave it, dear."

Brando simply nodded and watched as the redhead returned to fiddling with her explosives.

* * *

Whit was awakened from his reverie as he heard the jangling of what he assumed to be metal spurs steadily approaching him from behind. He did not even flinch as a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

"Well, if this ain't a _fine _how-do-you-do…"

Turning slightly to look at the source of the voice out of the corner of his eye, Whit recognized the visage of Hol Horse. Never once losing his typical smile, he removed the cowboy's hand from his back and held it in a handshake. "Good afternoon, Mr. Horse. Or, if I were to use a colloquialism of yours…" Whit gave a full tip of his small hat as he gave another greeting. "Well, howdy-doo-dah-day, pardner. I sure hope ya didn't bake on the way to bend an elbow."

Hol Horse squinted as he put the cigarette that had been situated between his lips out on the counter. "How old _are _you?"

Whit merely placed his hat back on his head and turned back in his seat with a clearing of his throat. "I do not believe that is any of your concern, Mr. Horse. Now then," He gestured to the unfinished glass of water in front of him, "do you care to indulge in an Adam's Ale alongside my person?"

"Now, see, _that _I understood. And, no, I can get water wherever the hell I want," The larger man remarked, seating himself next to Whit as he called out to the bartender. "Gimme your strongest beer."

"Coming right up," The man behind the counter affirmed before turning to the numerous bottles lining the back shelf.

The gunman turned to his associate. "So, Brando-"

"My moniker has been altered to 'Whit,' if you would be so kind as to refer to me as such," The bellhop interrupted.

Hol Horse tipped his head back with a short laugh. "Fancy yerself a smart guy, huh?"

"Why yes, I do perceive myself as a man of intelligence," Whit admitted. "If I may extend, one of more genius than several I could name at this precise moment."

"Uh-huh…" Hol Horse nodded to the bartender as he received the alcoholic drink he had ordered. After taking a long drag from the glass and placing it back on the counter, he turned his full attention back to the man beside him. "So…_Whit_…A little chickadee told me that two bodies were found submerged in the Red Sea, pretty damn close to the coast. One was Midler, who looked like she had been shot in the back of the head. The other was Boot Daddy, whose face was completely blown off, so we could only recognize it was him through one of them DNA tests."

"That does reach my ears as a genuine tragedy," Whit stated, taking a delicate sip from his water. "Although, the situation only does so as I realize the sanctity of Team Horseshoe has been compromised as a result."

"I already told ya, it's-" Hol Horse cut himself off and sighed. "Never mind. Look, what I'm wonderin' is this:" He leaned towards Whit, looming over him. "Would _you _happen to know anything about this situation?"

"I did not have any sort of information regarding these circumstances until you just spoke of them," The smaller man tilted his head. "What would ever give you the idea that I had been involved myself?"

"Don't play dumb. I was right there when you pulled that little stunt on the old hag back in that graveyard. I know how you work, and I know you wouldn't have just one bomb on you," The cowboy explained.

Whit sighed. "Surely even an individual of your caliber would understand the contrast between the design and function of a stun grenade and a fragmentation grenade. I may have disappeared in that explosion; however, my opponent was completely unharmed, if one does not count the duo of kicks to the cranium she received thereafter."

"I _meant _you would have more than one _type _of bomb on you. That mole friend of yours sure didn't skimp out on variety, I'll give her that," Hol Horse said, folding his arms.

"Speaking of that nutso stunt," The gunman began, "that café of yours has been _real _quiet-like, ever since I got back here. Not even a sign of that pretty boy part-timer, that grumpy old man, the two tykes, or lil' Miss Mole. Did your freedom fighter gang fall out or something?"

"Aware as I am that you are quite prone to inserting your olfactory organ where it is forbidden placement," The bellhop stated, "I am of maximum certainty that such an issue is no business of yours." He went silent, closing his eyes and taking another sip of his beverage.

"Tch," Hol Horse sneered and turned back in his seat. Downing the rest of his drink with a few long gulps, he observed the smaller man out of the corner of his eye. Whit seemed completely oblivious to his surroundings as, the way Hol Horse saw it, he finally relaxed for the first time in his life. The clean-cut man rested his elbows on the counter and held up his chin with an open palm, slowly drumming his fingers along his cheekbone one at a time. He exhaled softly, all of the stress that had been in his shoulders seeming to come loose at that moment.

"You understand your place, no?" Whit asked, opening his eyes a fraction of the way to stare at Hol Horse. "If that is the end of the list of queries you hold for me, I suggest you be on your way. Much unlike yourself, I have a nigh-unending supply of people to converse with and tasks to fulfill for the greater good. I merely allowed myself this one moment of respite which would not have conflicted with the schedule locked into my thoughts. Then, you arrived, and consumed more time that I could have utilized to further my endeavors, instead of wasting it on undeserving, _useless _trash," He rested his head on his arms on the table and closed his eyes, as if going to sleep.

_Y-You've gotta be shittin' me…_Hol Horse's expression hardened as he thought. _Don't you mock me. I run from fights and I only accept bein' number two to anyone I help, but _useless _is a word you will _never _use to describe me. I swore loyalty to Dio, but I didn't even swear that from the bottom of my heart. What kind of loyalty does an entitled little shit like you think you can get from me?_ He tightened his hands into fists. _Damn it! Are you even all that strong, compared to your master? Your back is wide open! Maybe you don't have as much control over your body as you act like you do. With that stupid smarmy grin you keep all the time, that can't be the only malfunctioning piece of the collection of cobbled-together, hand-me-down parts you call a body._

Hol Horse looked around at the bar. Aside from himself, Whit, and the bartender, who was preoccupied with organizing the bottles on the shelf across from him, the quaint pub was completely empty. Without turning in his seat, the cowboy summoned The Emperor in his right hand. He carefully maneuvered his hand so the gun was pointing directly at the exposed side of Whit's head.

_He's totally open!_ Hol Horse thought, his eyes unempathetic as he stared down at the smaller man._ I'm pointin' the Emperor's barrel right at him, and he hasn't even noticed. I can finish him off now. Just gotta pull the trigger…It'll be over in an instant. The Emperor was made fer killing at point blank range! I can do this. I absolutely can!_

"Please, make haste and make your way to wherever you are needed next, _Hol Horse_…" Whit commanded with a venomous tone, as if speaking the gunman's name felt disgusting on his tongue.

_I'm sick of you…_Hol Horse gritted his teeth as he used his thumb to pull back the hammer. _I'll kill you!_

"Are you really trying to shoot me?" The words of the bellhop cut through the air like a knife. He opened his eyes as he looked up at the cowboy with an unreadable expression. "Try it, then."

Hol Horse didn't even flinch as he pulled the trigger. Just as the bullet left the gun, Whit vanished. The only evidence of the event was the burn mark left in the counter. In the next second, he felt two hands from behind wrap around each of his wrists. Before Hol Horse could react, he was suddenly transported to the back wall of the outside of the building. The sparse foliage that had only been planted for decorative purposes served to conceal the struggle between the two men from any onlooking observers.

_Oh, hell no, _Hol Horse thought, as he forced the bullet that he had shot earlier to fly out of the bar around to where he was pinned to the wall. As the bullet came around the corner, Whit released Hol Horse's wrists and pressed the larger man to the wall with his back. Snapping his left arm out, he aimed to catch the bullet with his bare hand; however, Hol Horse easily forced it to zip around out of his reach. The distance between the bullet and his target's forehead was closed in less than a second, as Whit jolted upwards.

The cowboy found he could finally turn around, the weight of the other man having fallen from his back. Turning to look at Whit's body with a sneer, he saw the bellhop still standing with his head turned away. Slowly, the smaller man twisted back to lock eyes with his opponent, the bullet of The Emperor pinched tightly between his teeth.

_Aw shit._

Before Hol Horse could pistol-whip his adversary, Whit lunged forward and yanked the gunman up by the collar of his shirt, easily lifting him off the ground despite his less-built size. Hol Horse struggled against the iron grip holding him aloft but found he could do nothing to break it. The clean-cut man exhaled tensely before summoning an almost transparent, golden-colored gauntlet with grey fingers to his side. The disembodied ghostly arm reached up with its thumb and forefinger to pluck the small object out of Whit's mouth, keeping as firm a grip on the part of the Stand as the attendant did on the user. Whit allowed his tongue to drift along his lips in an instinctive attempt to cool the burn the bullet had left behind. His gaze was unreadable.

"Well, what the fuck are you gonna do now?" The captive asked. "You gonna kill me like ya did to Boot Daddy? Or maybe torture me for information about yer master?"

The attendant gave a low chuckle. "I find myself able to assure you, I would only seek out retribution of such a caliber if you had possessed some modicum of handiwork in threatening the safety of certain operations or people. Mr. Daddy had been guilty of both. As such, I provided ample punishment, suitable for a creature of his kind."

"Don't act like ya've got the moral high ground, just 'cause it takes more to piss you off. Ya can't run from yer past, no matter how hard you try," Hol Horse shot back.

"Do you truly despise me so much?" Whit asked, tilting his head. "Your previous cowardice has seemingly evaporated, and yet I am still the current keeper of your life," He explained, gesturing with the bullet between his Stand's fingers. With a smirk, he released his grip on the cowboy and took a few steps back. The smaller man stared at the bullet in his grasp. "Truly, the resolve of humans is an intangibility upon which to marvel. Even as I am, they still discover more recent methods through which to overwhelm me…

"Dio may indeed pursue godhood himself; however, such an endeavor is fruitless if he chooses to underestimate the raw magnitude of the human will. Attempt as he may to snuff out every inkling of the value, such measures only serve to allow that behavior to persist and even thrive. Various circumstances guarantee that the world shall always hold those who would observe all others to be incorrect, who would struggle against the future fate has in store. Whether those who rebel are 'right' or 'wrong' may not always be a solvable conundrum. Willpower and the conflict that results are a duo of the quite miniscule list of stabilities among humans. To take those away would truly strip humanity of humanness. And yet…" Whit grimaced, "and yet, Dio chooses to continue with his scheme.

"The only fashion through which I and my allies shall succeed is utilizing those constants to their fullest," The copy returned to his eerie smile. "The conviction present in your gaze and your words reminded me of that. As such, Mr. Horse, I have…a proposition for you…" Whit walked back over to the gunman and took his hand, holding the palm up. He gently placed the bullet back in the user's hand and the goldenrod arm faded into nonexistence after releasing its grip. Whit took a long, deep breath as he closed Hol Horse's fingers around the object. Locking eyes with the larger man, Whit said, "I would like to enter into a partnership with you."

The cowboy immediately retracted his hand with a raised eyebrow. "'Fraid I don't swing that way, compadre."

Whit laughed lightly and shook his head. "Even if romantic pursuit had been the intent of my proposition, I am keenly aware as to the fact that your methods and mine would simply not gel. I believe you fully misinterpreted my proposal," The bellhop then reached into his right pocket and pulled out a very full envelope and held it out to Hol Horse. "I would be most appreciative if you would function under my declaration. I at one moment in time came into contact with the amounts Dio paid out to his Stands-for-hire. Inside the envelope, you shall find double the payment he would have doled out to your wallet."

The gunman took the envelope with a skeptical look at the attendant, before slowly opening it. His eyes bulged as he examined the contents and pulled out one of the bills. "Where in the hell did you even come across this kinda cash?"

"I have an associate whose tool of trade is cunning in acquiring wealth. Such a sum was paltry for her to obtain," Whit explained. He cleared his throat before speaking again. "Forcing someone to do my bidding is the last idea I would ever want to put into effect. I implore that you enlist in my cause, but only of your own volition. Allow me this advice, though," His expression became deathly serious as he spoke, "if you devotedly value your own livelihood and whatever shred of pride you have left, you would do well to never return to Dio. Working under that creature will sooner degrade both into naught but ash."

With that, the attendant turned and walked around the perimeter of the building back into the bar, leaving the gunman to stare at the money that had been left in his hand. "My sincerest apologies for the ruckus, sir," Whit confessed as he returned to the counter, pulling his wallet out from his back pants pocket. "I also must apologize for my and my associate's lack of payment. This should cover it," He said, as he pulled out several bills.

"S-Sir, this is _way _too much for just a beer and water!" The bartender exclaimed, his eyes wide as he stared at the cash held out to him.

"Ah, well, a good portion of this transaction is…how was it referred to…'hush money,' so no one shall hear of this series of events," The attendant said with a wink. The man behind the counter slowly nodded as he took the Egyptian pounds offered to him.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey, _hey_," Hol Horse called out as he walked up to the bar, causing the bartender to shake and raise his hands in the air. The cowboy rolled his eyes at this and sneered at Whit. "At least let me pay for my own drink. I ain't no kid," He said, pulling out his wallet. After leaving enough money on the counter to pay for his beverage, he reached into his pocket and tossed the money-filled envelope directly in front of Whit onto the bar.

The bellhop raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Horse, what is-"

"Now you wait just one goddamn second. I wanna know something first," Hol Horse said, leaning towards the smaller man. "Do you honestly believe half the shit that comes outta yer mouth?"

Whit met the cowboy's stare with a resolute gaze. "If I did not give every value I speak of at least half of my own belief, I would not be asking every and anyone I have the ability to to assist in this gargantuan venture. I would have fallen long ago, if I did not."

Hol Horse looked into Whit's green eyes for a long set of moments. Finally, he sighed. "Guess I got no choice, then."

"On the contrary, Mr. Horse," The attendant stated, "I believe I gifted you with plenty of options. Perhaps you only perceive the situation as being choiceless because you are unable to uncover in your heart an ability to decide upon any other?"

"Listen here, you little shit," The mercenary began, grabbing Whit by the collar of his shirt, "the only reason I'm workin' for you is 'cause you've got looser reins on me than Dio. Plus, if we kill him, we can loot his place after it's all over. And _when _it's all over, I'm hightailin' it away from this godforsaken country with my big cut of the bounty, and I don't wanna see your Frankenstein mug ever again. Got that?"

Whit chuckled. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Mr. Horse."

The gunman let go of the smaller man and stood from his seat, as Whit did the same and led the way out of the pub. "I have a preliminary task for you, Mr. Horse," The bellhop stated.

"Fine. What've you got?" The other man responded, pulling out a cigarette and placing it in his mouth.

As Hol Horse fished into his pocket for his lighter, he saw Whit turn to him with a grave expression.

"I have another matter to attend to myself," The attendant said, "but, I need _you _to retrieve something that has been stolen."

* * *

"Oh, wow, I actually look pretty okay in this photo," Suki commented as she examined the recent photo.

Despite the harrowing journey they had been on up to that point, and the danger still to follow, each of the members of the group found they could smile in that moment of peace in front of the camera lens. As Suki stared at her image in the group photo, situated directly in front of Jotaro with her hand raised in a friendly wave and a contented smile, she narrowed her eyes.

"See, you just needed to loosen up," Jotaro stated from the passenger seat, snapping the girl out of her daze.

Suki passed the photo back to Jotaro with a smirk. "I don't think you should be the one lecturing me about 'loosening up'." As the delinquent turned back around, the girl let her mind wander back to the conversation Joseph had had with the pilot before they had left.

_When Joseph asked, the pilot said Holly would be lucky to survive three more weeks, maybe even two and a half…_She thought, absentmindedly scratching behind the ears of the dog in her lap. _There's also what he mentioned after that…_

"_Also, we have some information for you. According to the report, two days ago…Nine mysterious men and women gathered in a building that Dio is believed to be hiding in, and then they all departed together… We don't know who they are. The person who reported this, Katherine K. Davis…was killed, and the mansion had already been cleared out. We were unable to locate the nine men and women."_

_The user of Little Drummer Boy we met four days ago, the woman who tried to make me feel better with that Christmas celebration in the middle of the night…She deserved better, I _know _she did…_Suki thought, chewing her lip. _That tidbit about the nine men and women is concerning, though…Abdul had plenty of information regarding the users of the Stands that suggested the Major Arcana of the Tarot, but even with the few other people all of us have met who don't fall under that nomenclature, it's clear that there are a lot more Stand users that we just don't know about…There may even be more than just those nine still following Dio, but, if that's the case, why would he call for those nine, specifically? What differentiates them from the others?_

Suki was jostled violently by the car landing after it had coasted over the edge of a particularly tall dune. Her gaze immediately flicked to Joseph, who continued to drive as if nothing had happened. Casting her eyes to the unstable terrain around them, she sighed and sat back in her seat.

"Mr. Joestar, can't you do something about this?" Polnareff complained, leaning over the middle seat and pointing at Iggy. "Why is that shitty little dog sitting in the seat while we're stuck in the back? It's so cramped, my back hurts."

"You'll have to wait until the flavor from his beloved coffee gum fades," Joseph said without turning. "Once that happens, I'll throw a new piece of gum into the back so he'll go there. Then you can change seats."

"I'll swap spots with you guys once that happens," Suki assured.

Getting back into the car after they had met with the Speedwagon Foundation had been somewhat unpleasant for the group. As Suki had been promised that she could swap spots with one of the men who had occupied the middle set of seats, she sat down without a problem. Iggy, taking full advantage of this, parked himself squarely in the girl's lap. Jotaro had already taken the passenger's seat, so that left Kakyoin, Abdul, and Polnareff to fruitlessly try to get to the seats on either side of the girl as Iggy kept lunging at them and summoning The Fool. Even after being given a strip of coffee gum, which calmed him down enough to stay in one spot, the canine still prevented any attempts at moving him by letting all of his weight fall into Suki's hands as she tried to nudge him off and growling warningly at the three other men.

Polnareff placed a hand on Iggy's back in another try to move him, but the dog turned and barked at the Frenchman.

"All right, all right! Calm down!" The Frenchman conceded.

"Come on, buddy," Suki coaxed, scratching under Iggy's chin, guiding him to look up at her, "be civil."

Iggy made a whining noise in the back of his throat. Suki's expression immediately softened.

"Dammit…" The silver-haired man huffed.

Suddenly, the group felt the vehicle lift off the ground. They collectively shouted in surprise as the off-roader landed on its front two wheels and fell back onto the sand.

"Wh-What the hell?!" Polnareff exclaimed.

"Mr. Joestar, I know the desert is less than stable for driving through, but can we _please _not die on the way to our destination?!" Suki begged. Iggy growled from the floor, having been thrown from the girl's lap in the chaos.

"L-Look! Over there!" Joseph called, stepping out of the driver's seat and pointing at something just over the sand dune in front of them. Jotaro and Suki exited the vehicle and followed the old man's direction to see what had made him stop. "Th-That's…The helicopter!"

Sure enough, the metal wreckage that sat in front of the party was the damaged remains of the Speedwagon aircraft. Two plumes of smoke rose from the damaged rotor, the tail was bent at an obtuse angle, and all of the windows had been completely shattered.

"The Speedwagon Foundation helicopter that flew off earlier is down in the sand!" Kakyoin observed, as the rest of the group got out of the car.

"There's no sign it was attacked…" Abdul said.

"It's like it just fell to the ground…" Kakyoin added.

"I…doubt that," Suki said, trying to examine as much as she could of the broken aircraft from her vantage point.

"It couldn't be!" Polnareff cried.

"Be careful!" Joseph warned. "It's very likely we'll be attacked by the enemy's Stand!"

"Look! It's the pilot!" Jotaro shouted, as his eyes fell upon the body. What had once been the gray-haired pilot was caught halfway between the inside and outside of the helicopter. "He's dead…There are marks where he clawed the helicopter's side…" The thug noted, observing the man's bloodied fingertips and the nail-width trails in the outer wall of the vehicle.

"This is horrible. Approach carefully," Joseph cautioned, as he slowly led the rest of the group to the wreckage. "Something could be hiding there."

The group split in half, as Jotaro, Suki, and Joseph examined the crash site in greater detail while Polnareff, Abdul, and Kakyoin scoured the perimeter.

_Dammit…How could this happen_ again_?_ Suki wondered, clenching her fists. Taking a deep breath, she collected her thoughts. _Getting upset won't help. We have to examine as much as we can._

Suki cast her eyes away from the deceased SPW Foundation member and took a closer look at the fallen helicopter. Stepping up to the tail of the vehicle, she gently traced her fingers over the bend that looked as if it had been ripped open.

_It's warm, but there aren't any burn marks…_ She thought, casting her gaze over to Joseph. _Mr. Joestar didn't look away from the desert in front of him. I'm sure of it. _Seeing the two men examining the body, she took a deep breath and joined them. Jotaro crouched down next to the pilot, lifting him up slightly. Oddly, a pool of water sat placidly in the mouth of the body, as his eyes looked on in terror of something the group never got to witness.

"It's water," He observed, as the liquid slowly dripped down the side of the body's face. Placing his upper body back on the ground, the delinquent noticed the water still flowed freely out of the man's mouth, now turned to the side. A small fish followed the stream that had been created. "So much water…It's coming from the pilot's mouth…No, from his lungs. There's even a small fish. He drowned in the middle of the desert!"

A sharp chill shot down Suki's spine at this revelation.

"What on earth?" Joseph wondered.

Looking back up at the aircraft, Suki began to climb up the wreckage. "I'm gonna investigate the interior."

"Holler if you find trouble!" Joseph shouted.

"Can do!" Suki responded, mindfully slipping through the broken window into the toppled vehicle. Casting her gaze about, she moved into the back, searching for any sign of an attack from within. Even with the desert sun beaming down outside, the inside of the grounded aircraft was surprisingly dark. Suki reached into her bag and removed her flashlight, casting the small ray of light about the interior. As she did so, Knight of Cups manifested next to her. The Stand wrapped her arms around her figure and shivered, looking about anxiously. Suki gave a reassuring smile. "Just stick close, okay?" Knight nodded and began to shadow her user as she examined the vehicle.

_If they started from the inside, they sure were clean about it… _She noted, observing the clutter that only seemed to have been caused by the tumult the vehicle experienced. Her eyes fell upon a red backpack that had been tucked snugly under the middle back seat. Curious, she slipped her flashlight between her teeth, pulled the backpack out, and began to rifle through it. _It's a survival kit_, she observed, able to spot several bags of water and rations, a compass, and a signal mirror, among many other utilities in case of a crash. Pulling out the leather-sheathed knife, she rifled further through the bag. _There's cord and a crash axe in here, too…_

Hearing the helicopter walls creak above her, Suki quickly turned and dropped the bag, brandishing the sheathed knife in her hand, while Knight took a defensive position. A second later, Jotaro poked his head through the window. The girl sighed as she took the light source out of her mouth. "Jesus, don't _spook _me like that…"

"You need to listen better. I asked if you wanted me to help you look, but you didn't respond," He explained.

"My bad," Suki admitted. "It's a bit of a tight squeeze in here, even for me, but maybe you could keep an eye on me from the outside?"

Jotaro shrugged. "Where the hell'd you get the knife?"

"From the survival kit," Suki replied, picking up the still-open backpack. "Nothing in there's been disturbed so I don't think that's what the attacker used."

"Hey," The thug called out to the girl as she moved to replace the blade into the bag, "you may want to hold on to that."

Suki froze. Her grip tightened alongside every muscle in her body. _I _can_ use this, but…_

"It's just a suggestion," He said quietly.

The girl swallowed thickly. _It's…for defense._ She nodded and slipped the knife into her pocket. Replacing the red bag, she moved back into the front seat and directed Knight to get a better look at the controls that were at about shin level. "They don't look like they've been tampered with…" Out of the corner of her eye, Suki spotted a map on the floor in front of the passenger's seat. Reaching out, she picked it up and opened it, examining the navigation path that had been marked in red. "After rendezvousing with us, they were going to head to Mt. Tahat, in Algeria…that's almost directly west of Aswan, and we've been driving west to get _there_…" She muttered.

"So, if the helicopter had been shot down with some sort of artillery, you're saying the old man would've noticed, right?" Jotaro suggested.

Suki nodded. "Hey, Jotaro, do you know much about helicopters?" She asked, folding the map and replacing it, as Knight floated back up and wrapped her arms around Suki's shoulders.

"Some," He responded.

"If the pilot were to suddenly become incapacitated, and the helicopter crashed soon after, would the tail have bent like that?" The girl probed, "I can't seem to see that kind of thing happening, unless it was damaged in-flight…"

"I wouldn't rule that out."

Suki put a hand to her chin. "When I saw the smoke coming out of the mast and the claw marks the pilot had left behind, I thought maybe it had malfunctioned while they were flying, and he was trying to fix it. It might have made sense, if that was the other guy on the helicopter, but the pilot is supposed to, well, _pilot _the damn thing…"

"Yeah," Jotaro agreed, "plus, we didn't find any extreme injuries on the pilot's back. We would've, if he had been in that position when the helicopter fell."

"So, the helicopter must have crashed, and _then _the pilot was murdered. He left those marks while trying to get away from what was attacking him…" Casting one last look about the inside of the helicopter, Suki called to Jotaro. "I think I've found what I can in here. Could you give me a hand with getting out?"

The delinquent nodded, summoning Star Platinum. The Stand descended into the front seat of the helicopter and formed a basket with his hands. Suki stepped into the support he had made and ruffled his hair as he lifted her. He smiled in response. She then took the hand held out to her by Jotaro and pulled herself up the rest of the way. As the Stand made to rejoin his user, he was stopped by a hand on his wrist. He locked eyes with Knight of Cups, who pulled back her hand and cast an anxious look at the ground, turning her hands over each other. After a moment, Star Platinum approached Knight and wrapped his arms around her smaller form. Knight of Cups glowed a soft red.

"Where is Knight?" Upon hearing her user call for her, she skillfully slipped out of the other Stand's grasp and floated back up to her user. Star scratched his head with a slightly sheepish look before rejoining his own user's figure. Suki turned to Knight with a knowing look as the watery wraith flew up to her. "What were you doing in there?" Knight of Cups simply shook her head with her hands on her cheeks.

Jotaro cleared his throat and adjusted his cap, drawing Suki's attention back to the matter at hand. "Do you have an idea what this Stand might be?"

"Well, I've got a hunch…" Suki started, casting a glance back at her still manifested Stand. "It might be-"

"H-Hey…" Polnareff called out, supporting the body of the other Speedwagon Foundation employee. "The other one's over here. He's alive!"

Suki and Jotaro exchanged a look before dismounting from the side of the helicopter and joining the rest of the group surrounding the other man. He did not appear to have any outward injuries, but his cheeks were sunken in and his pallor was pale. He gasped for air with a dazed look in his eyes.

"Are you all right?" Joseph asked. "Get a hold of yourself! What on earth happened?"

The SPW member pointed weakly toward the canteen that lay a few meters away. "Wa…Water…"

"What? You want water?" Joseph held a hand out to Polnareff. "Polnareff, hand me that canteen."

"Right." The silver-haired man reached behind himself and grasped the canteen. He then held the canteen out to Mr. Joestar.

Suki's eyes widened. _That canteen must've been on the-!_

"_Knight of Cups!_" Suki shouted, throwing out her open hand. Her Stand zipped out from her own canteen and created a watery whip in her hand. She then threw the weapon out and allowed it to wrap around the spout of the other canteen, ripping it from Polnareff's grasp and pulling it over her head in an arc. As the container flew upwards, water that had been inside rushed out and seemed to form a hand shape before slashing at the whip she created. The contact between the whip and the other water caused the weapon Suki had created to dispel into vapor. _Uh-oh…_She thought. Casting her gaze about, she noticed the other men had retreated to opposite sides of the attack site. The canteen had landed in the middle of the area as water dribbled out of it. All of the other group members, except for Iggy, laid on their stomachs as they scouted out the situation from their vantage points. She barely turned to look at the copilot, who looked utterly terrified. "We'll take care of this. Don't make any sudden movements," She murmured. Scanning the sandy terrain around her, she wondered, _Where the fuck is the Stand user…I feel like he would've attacked all of us by now, but he waited until we were close…And now he isn't attacking me, but I'm right next to him…Why is that…?_

"D-Damn it!" Jotaro swore, clenching his fist. "The Speedwagon Foundation crew wasn't part of this fight, but they were still attacked! And now…" He stared out at the girl standing near where the Stand had first appeared. "Goddammit…"

"Abdul, did you see what kind of Stand it was?" Joseph asked.

"I only saw a hand. But it's still inside the canteen! I haven't seen it leave," The fortune teller responded.

"It's water," Jotaro claimed, pulling out a pair of binoculars and rising slowly to one knee. The other two men on his left side gave him curious looks. "Knight of Cups was on edge ever since we found the body. She must've had some kind of feeling."

"You're saying Suki was able to sense the enemy Stand because she and the enemy have similar abilities?" Abdul asked. "The enemy Stand user…Who could it be? They mentioned that Dio gathered nine men and women…Is the attacker one of them, then?"

"Jotaro, locate the enemy's body," Joseph ordered, looking over to his grandson.

"I'm looking for it right now," The delinquent replied, searching his surroundings, "but, the enemy's body isn't anywhere I can see. I even looked for something like that stupid mirror The Sun had. But it seems the enemy is operating from very far away," Removing the binoculars from his eyes and blinking, he noticed Suki looking at him. She tilted her head and held out her hand in an asking gesture. Jotaro pointed to himself and held that index finger away from himself. He then pointed to the canteen and brought that finger back in a similar position, quickly dragging it from his other hand. As he locked eyes with the girl to ensure the message got through, he saw a knowing look cross her face before she turned back and scratched her head, her face scrunching up in thought. His expression softened almost imperceptibly as he watched the gears turn in her head. Hearing snickering, he turned and shot a glare at Joseph, who smirked at him. Abdul sighed.

_This Stand user is just like the others, _Suki thought, _if we don't incapacitate them, _they'll _kill _us_. Maybe if…If I get close to them, and use my weapons, I can distract them long enough that one of the others can knock them out….but what's the alternative if that doesn't work? _She swallowed and rubbed her hand over her pocket, thumbing the weapon through the thin fabric. _Can I…Can I even do that…? No, no, I shouldn't do that. _

Spotting movement out of the corner of her eye, Suki looked to her right to see Kakyoin point to the canteen. He was too far away for the girl to hear him. An argument seemed to ensue between him and the Frenchman next to him, before Suki waved at the honor student, drawing his attention. Once he looked her way, the girl held her hands out in front of her stomach as if she was holding a ball. She then gestured pushing them out and pulling them back in. Kakyoin tilted his head, as Polnareff leaned over to him to tell him what she was saying.

_Come on, Nori. You should know this attack by heart! Or maybe it doesn't come across with the gesture? _Suki mused, scratching her cheek.

After consulting with Polnareff, the redhead looked back over to Suki and shook his head. She couldn't hide the disbelief on her face as she held her hands out in a shrug. _Why the hell not?_

Polnareff gestured to the girl as if to say, "Even _she _doesn't get it!" but Kakyoin merely shook his head.

_Wait…_Suki recalled the moment in the dreamscape Michel had pulled them into when he had come to save her from the colossal shadow beast that had pinned her down. _He didn't hit him with a lot of those…Oh, no, _Nori…

Kakyoin looked back to Suki with an expression that seemed to say he wouldn't be argued with, before the girl put her hands over her heart and gave him gentle smile.

_Please, can you at least try, for me?_

The honor student gazed at her for a long while before he took a deep breath and nodded. However, his expression quickly morphed into surprise as he stared at a newly formed puddle of water next to him. Kakyoin and Polnareff could only look on as a watery hand with liquid webbing between its fingers emerged from it. Before either could react, the water slashed upwards, directly over Kakyoin's eyes. He fell onto his back with a dull thud.

"Kakyoin!" Polnareff cried.

"_Nori_!" Suki screamed, as she took a few strides toward his body.

"Suki, stay where you are!" The girl stopped upon hearing Jotaro's command. Gritting her teeth, she drew her hands through her hair and fisted harshly at the locks.

"That _bastard_…!" She hissed.

"The water _is _the Stand!" Abdul confirmed.

"It got Kakyoin! It got his eyes! I-It got Kakyoin's eyes!" Polnareff yelped.

"Polnareff! Stop panicking!" Joseph commanded. "Bring out Chariot and defend yourself!"

The Frenchman looked shocked as he stared down at his hand. The same liquid hand rose from the new puddle under his palm.

_Dammit, you aren't getting him, too! _Suki thought angrily, forming a watery bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. Knight of Cups coasted along both hands as she cocked the weapon. _I'm out of practice with this one, but please let this work…!_

Suddenly, a loud beeping sound rung through the air. Looking to the source of the noise, Suki only had a half-second to see the SPW member's watch going off before the enemy water Stand streamed through the air and slashed through it, cutting off the man's hand with it. He screeched in agony, but Suki quickly loosed the arrow she had readied at the airborne river before it could do further harm to him. She only grazed the Stand, but it turned to her nonetheless. She made a goading gesture.

"Come on, you big drip, I know you want me as much as I want you!" She called.

The Stand seemed to submit to the taunt as it raced through the air towards her. She backpedaled and began to climb the wreckage of the helicopter like the devil was on her tail, forming a watery buckler when the enemy slashed at her again. Standing on the side of the vehicle, she lost her footing and fell through the window with a yelp, the Stand streaking after her. The only noise the others heard after that was a loud squishing sound.

...

"Polnareff!" Jotaro shouted. "Grab Kakyoin and get the fuck over here before it comes back!"

Polnareff nodded as he lifted the honor student off the ground and began dashing toward the car. Shortly after, the water emerged from the downed helicopter and chased after him.

"Shit! Polnareff! It's coming for you this time!" Joseph exclaimed. "Run to the vehicle!"

Just after the old man's command, a small first aid kit flew out of the crashed helicopter in an arc, directly towards the copilot. He managed to catch it after stretching a little and looked up to see a lone figure leaping out of the grounded aircraft, the red survival kit situated snugly on her back. She turned slightly as she ran past the employee with a finger to her lips. It did not take long for her to gain pace with Polnareff as she raced towards her relieved comrades.

"You're alive!" Polnareff cried out, never losing his stride.

"Yep, sure am," Suki sighed, seeming as surprised as the others, "Thanks to dumb luck."

The two rushed towards the off-roader, the water nearly reaching their heels as they ran. Suki's face tightened as she looked back at the enemy Stand, forming a watery knife in her hands. "Fuck _off_, already!" She swore, slashing at the trail of water. It seemed to be stunned for only a moment before quickly regaining its trajectory. "Shit!"

"I-It's so fast!" Polnareff exclaimed.

"Hurry, you two!" Joseph yelled, reaching out to them with both hands.

Suddenly, the water arced up and slashed the back of Polnareff's shin, sending him and Kakyoin flying.

"It cut me!" The Frenchman cried.

"Hermit Purple!" Joseph summoned his Stand and used vines from both hands to wrap around Polnareff and Kakyoin.

Meanwhile, Suki made a mad dash the rest of the way. Feeling the water barely graze her feet, she leapt for the car. She barely missed the side of the vehicle.

"Star Platinum!"

As soon as she heard the cry, she felt a complete interruption in her descent as the Stand rushed in and swept her up, allowing the enemy Stand to dash past her, under the car. Star Platinum glared after the trail the water had left behind before looking over the girl in his arms as she slowly steadied her breathing. After a moment, he turned around and placed the girl in front of Jotaro. The delinquent nodded, before calling the spirit back into his figure.

"It soaked into the ground…" Abdul observed.

"The enemy can detect sound through vibrations in the ground," Joseph explained. "It can move freely around underground, without being seen, and before we know it, it can attack us from behind, or through the bottoms of our feet. And its user is able to remain far away."

Jotaro cast his eyes from the old man to the girl in front of him. "You alright?" He spoke softly.

Suki looked up and nodded slowly. "It's just mental strain." The girl reached over her shoulder and pulled one of the straps of the backpack off, situating the open bag in front of her. Jotaro noticed the narrow tear in the largest pocket as his comrade began to speak again. "I kept Knight of Cups active from my own canteen ever since we came across the pilot's body. I wasn't sure if the enemy was able to use any water within his range, or if he has a specific supply he draws from. I'm not taking any chances on that, though, so I currently have my Stand occupying every container of water I have on me."

"How many containers do you have?" The delinquent asked.

"Not counting Ol' Reliable, eleven. That bastard punctured one of them in trying to get to me," Suki muttered, zipping the back pocket of the bag up almost all the way. As she pulled the zipper to the top, she was stopped by Jotaro's hand landing on hers. The woman seemed caught somewhat off-guard, looking up and locking eyes with the man. After a moment, she gave a reassuring smile and placed her other hand on top of his, giving it a small squeeze before moving it off of the hand on the bag. She looked to the front of the car with a concerned expression as she replaced the bag on her back.

"H-How's Kakyoin?" Polnareff asked.

"It's not good," Abdul said as he looked closer at the honor student's injury. "He may have been blinded. Let's drive. We have to get him to a doctor immediately."

Suki noticed Jotaro's expression tighten slightly as he heard this.

"But if we move, it'll attack," Joseph pointed out. "We can't be careless."

_But we can't just wait for him to strike first… _Suki thought. _He's _gotta _know where we are from all that noise we made earlier… One of us has to go on the offensive…_

A look of realization crossed the woman's face, before she turned to Jotaro and gestured for him to come closer. With a raised eyebrow, the thug leaned in, as Suki moved closer to murmur something in his ear. After conversing quietly for a few moments, Jotaro pulled back and locked eyes with the girl. "Are you sure about this?" he probed.

"We've gotta take initiative on this one. It's the best thing I can think of right now," She responded.

Jotaro sighed and let his head fall forward, connecting with Suki's forehead. "Listen-"

"Ow!" The girl whimpered, moving back slightly and rubbing at her forehead. "What are you…?"

The thug pursed his lips and fiddled with the brim of his cap. "Didn't mean to do that."

With a small sigh, Suki moved back towards the man and touched his temple. "You've got to remember it's heavy. You've got a lot going on up here," She said with a grin.

Jotaro removed her hand and held it in front of him, absentmindedly running his thumb over her knuckles. "Just make it back in one piece, got it?"

"You worry too much," The girl replied.

The delinquent cleared his throat awkwardly, as Suki turned and noticed that the rest of the conscious group on top of the car had been giving them quizzical looks.

"She's got a plan," Jotaro said glibly.

With that curt statement, he summoned Star Platinum. The Stand formed a basket with his hands as Suki rose to her feet and took the binoculars Jotaro held out to her. She gave a small smile to the rest of the group. "Trust me on this one."

Abdul and Polnareff exchanged a concerned look, while Joseph met the girl's gaze head-on. "You seem certain about this," He said. She nodded. "I won't stop you, then."

Suki could hear the beginnings of a protest from Polnareff as she stepped back. Taking a breath, she dashed forward and stepped into the support Star Platinum had created. Without a moment's delay, the Stand threw her several meters straight up into the air. Reaching the peak of the toss, the girl whipped out the binoculars and scanned the horizons from her vantage point. Turning her gaze to the right, her eyes fell upon a strange figure sitting comfortably in the middle of the desert. Looking in every other direction yielded no similar result.

_That must be our guy, then, _She thought.

"Part B!" She shouted, pointing in the direction she had spotted the person as she descended.

With little effort, Star Platinum caught her. Moving in such a way to conserve the momentum from her fall, the Stand threw her in the direction of her point. As the woman soared at high speeds just over the sands, she heard the disapproving squeal of the machinery of the off-roader, coupled with the troubled shouts of her comrades.

_Hopefully we can get this done and dusted before any more lasting damage is done…_The girl mused. _Nori…what they did to you can't be forgiven. I…I'll… _She trailed off inwardly. Seeing the ground steadily approach as she flew parallel to it, she formed a watery rocket launcher in her hands and aimed below her. The resulting blast she shot forced her trajectory to take a wide arc shape. As she ascended once more, she took note of the distance between herself and the figure she had spotted.

She could now discern that this was a man of a somewhat athletic build with unkempt black hair. From this distance, it was difficult to tell what he was wearing under the thick shawl he wore to protect himself from the sun's rays. What struck Suki most was the fact that he kept a firm grip on a cane he had resting against his ear, partially buried in the ground.

_He's…blind…? _Suki wondered. _It would explain why he uses sound to attack. But, dammit_, she cursed inwardly, reevaluating the distance between herself and the enemy Stand user. _I'll still have some running to do. He might know that that first impact from my rocket launcher wasn't just a random occurrence. I can at least do what I can to throw him off. _

Morphing the water rocket launcher into a staff as she reached the peak of the arc, she threw it at a diagonal from herself, impaling it in the sand several meters from where she was still airborne. The force of impact seemed to draw the enemy's attention, as he turned his head to where the weapon had landed.

_I'm closer now, I can see his eyes are closed, _Suki thought. _That seems to have worked the way I wanted it to…_

Reaching into the space she had left open in the backpack, Suki yanked out the safety blanket, careful not to disturb the rest of the bag's contents. Opening the blanket and taking two corners in each hand, she formed a makeshift parachute that quickly worked to slow her descent.

_Right, okay… _Looking back to where she had advanced from, she thought over the plan she had formed with Jotaro. _He should be coming in for backup at some distance behind me…I just need to hold out until he gets here._

She formed a watery whip in her hand and dropped the short remaining distance she had left, tossing the safety blanket behind her and rushing toward her target. The enemy seemed surprised as he turned to the girl, finally noticing her approach. _Your Stand is fast, but it can't cover all of that distance in the time it'll take me to get to you!_ She thought, as she lashed out her weapon and allowed it wrap around the man's cane. The enemy's iron grip never faltered as she attempted to pull it from his hand. A smile crept up on his face.

"So, it _was _you, after all…" The man realized, slowly standing. He allowed his eyelids to part, revealing blank, white eyes to the opposing girl. "This should be worth a laugh…"

As he spoke, he yanked on his cane, forcing Suki to stumble forward. The girl recovered quickly and used her stumble to transition into a run. The man kicked up a pile of sand in front of him, forcing Suki to throw her arm up to protect her eyes. Fighting off the mild irritation of the dirt, she looked up to see the enemy directly in front of her, swinging his cane at the side of her head. Catching it with her left hand, she yanked on the stick to pull her opponent closer, kneeing him in the stomach. As he grunted from the blow, he used his proximity and larger size to shove Suki to the ground. Giving her no time to react, the man moved forward and stepped on her throat. The girl grabbed at the man's ankle to try and give herself even the smallest amount of air.

"Hm. As disappointing as I should've expected," The enemy stated. Suki let one of her hands fall to the side of her head, as she formed a watery knife in the other, stabbing at her opponent's leg. He laughed. "You should be honored to share similar abilities to the great N'Doul, miss; however, that similarity means I won't be falling for your sideshow party tricks."

_The water weapons don't work, _Suki concluded, _which means I have two options. I hold his attention and wait for Jotaro, or I…_

_Everyone… I can't hesitate._

The girl gave him a pained grin as she suddenly swung the blunt side of the crash axe she held in her other hand at N'Doul's leg. He shouted in surprised pain as she took the opportunity to shove his leg off of her. Spotting the water from before streaking right for her head, the girl allowed herself a millisecond of surprise before she quickly rolled away and rose to her feet, taking several strafing steps away from the enemy Stand. She stopped a few meters away from the man as soon as he pulled his Stand back.

"Hah! Having your Stand hand you the crash axe from inside the backpack was clever. I will give you that," N'Doul confessed, touching his injured leg with his free hand before standing up straight. His Stand swirled about his feet, kicking up sand, "but, that doesn't mean I will let you pull off a similar tactic again."

_I only have so much water left…_Suki thought. _I need to catch him off guard with something he wouldn't expect._

The girl took a deep breath, loosened the straps on her backpack, and rushed forward again.

"Right, because this tactic worked so well for you last time," N'Doul snarked, readying his Stand to strike. The water lashed out and slashed at the girl's left hand, knocking the crash axe from it, as the Stand quickly looped around and cut her leg, sending her to one knee. Refusing to let this wound hinder her, Suki continued to dash towards the man as she reached into her pocket. Using his keen hearing, N'Doul was able to pick up on not one, but two sets of similar footsteps approaching him side-by-side. "Two?" He smiled. "I said I wouldn't fall for your cheap parlor tricks! I can easily tell where you are by the movement of the water in your bags!" The water Stand took a sweeping arc through the air in its course to attack Suki. N'Doul's Stand slashed at the figure carrying the survival kit and satchel.

It disappeared into vapor upon impact.

"What?!" N'Doul exclaimed, quickly recovering and sending his Stand after the real opposing Stand user. With a vigorous battle cry, the girl threw the knife in her hand at the enemy Stand user and rolled to dodge the oncoming water. "Stupid girl, how many times do I have to tell you! It won't work unless it's a-!"

The survival knife landed squarely in his throat.

_Real…knife…_ He thought, as he collapsed to the ground.

_I…I-I did it…_ Suki thought, as she heard N'Doul cough. _But…Didn't he expect this? _Against her better judgment, despite the feeling of intensifying gravity in her gut, she slowly approached the man, the water she had covered the knife with slowly dispelling into vapor.

"You idiotic child…" Suki wondered where the voice of her enemy was coming from as she looked around, before her eyes fell upon the water Stand pointing at her. "I could still kill you. Why do you approach me?"

The girl seemed confused as she stood next to the dying man, opening and closing her mouth just as she would find words only to lose them again immediately.

"Lord Dio told me of you," N'Doul explained. "He said you could only make weapons with your abilities, that cannot even kill a man under normal circumstances." He laughed. "I am honestly glad you took my life here. I wouldn't be able to face Lord Dio again, knowing I had met my match to a mere tool."

_A…tool…? _Suki thought.

"Is that not why you gathered the resolve to stab me?" The blind man asked. "You only function for the needs of the others in your group, and the idea that one of them could come into harm when facing me down forced you to act. That was no act of self-preservation. If it hadn't worked, you would have been without any sort of weapon, completely defenseless. You were only trying to buy time, an opening."

"…I…"

"Suki!" The girl turned upon hearing her name. She spotted Jotaro running towards her with Iggy right beside him. The dog seemed to have just finished using his Stand, as a large mass of sand descended back to the dunes along with The Fool. Stopping right beside the brunette, Jotaro closely looked over the downed enemy Stand user. As his eyes flicked over to the still-active water Stand, he pulled Suki behind him. "Don't even-"

"At ease, Jotaro," N'Doul glared up at the delinquent. "I was defeated in a fair fight. I may not be a moral man, but I am at least an honorable one. In that avenue," The blind man coughed and closed his eyes, "I am willing to divulge a small piece of information, as a form of…reward, for the weapon going beyond my expectations." Suki walked past Jotaro and knelt down beside the man. "The nine men and women…the nine Stand users the Speedwagon Foundation spied on…I was one of them. Each of them has a Stand that suggests an Egyptian god or goddess. My Stand is Geb, the Egyptian god of earth. You may think that means there are nine Egyptian Glory God Stand users. I will tell you that that is an incorrect assumption. There _were_ nine men and women; however, not all of the Egyptian god and goddess Stand users are of man or woman. There _was _a reason Lord Dio wanted those nine specifically, though. That is all I will tell you."

"N'Doul, I need to know," Suki began, "why did you take Kakyoin's vision away?"

"Why would I explain that to you?" N'Doul asked, closing his eyes. "A tool like you couldn't even begin to understand what a thinking, breathing person would have in mind when causing harm to someone else. I grew up fighting for myself, and only myself. I have never feared death. I'm not even afraid as it asks me beyond…right…now…"

The man known as N'Doul finally fell silent with a strangely peaceful expression gracing his features.

Suki pulled the knife out of the man's throat without a word. She replaced it silently in its sheath and shoved it back into her pocket.

"Why did you ask him that?" Jotaro asked.

"I…I wanted to know, what the man I had killed was like," The woman stated, clenching her hands into tight fists. Jotaro reached over to her, but decided against it and retracted his hand. Suki looked at him, her eyes wavering. "Can you…help me bury him?"

Jotaro nodded, as they set to digging a hole in the nearest sand dune.

They dug without a word. They moved N'Doul without a word. They covered him with the sand in silence. Suki picked up the cane he had left behind and impaled it into the ground where they had buried him. She stepped back next to Jotaro.

She looked up at him with a sad smile, before her breath suddenly caught and she lost her balance. Jotaro caught the girl as she fell to the side.

He was snapped out of his daze upon hearing Iggy barking and running across the sand.

"Hey! Jotaro!" The delinquent looked to his right to see the off-roader driving in reverse towards him, as his grandfather shouted at him from the passenger window he hung out of. "Jotaro! Suki! Are you two all right?"

Jotaro cast his eyes to the girl in his arm, who had seemed nonplussed by the loud noises approaching them. With a sigh, he supported her legs with his other arm and carried her to the vehicle.

Kakyoin woke up at one point on the way to the hospital and was filled in on the details of what had occurred during his lack of consciousness. The attendant sitting in the back with bandages wrapped about his handless forearm cast frequent glances to the unconscious girl sitting in the backseat. No matter how many questions Joseph, Polnareff, or Abdul asked, Jotaro remained absolutely silent the rest of the way to Aswan.

If his eyes weren't on the girl in his arms or the honor student beside him, they were on the approaching horizon.

* * *

Chapter Seventeen - No Tears

-END-

|To Be Continued|\|/

* * *

**I'm not sure how many people will get the e-yes reference (It's "Y E S spells yes. What doe spell?" on Youtube, it's a funny video!), but I felt it's been too long since I addressed the English lessons.**

**This chapter might as well be the best time to say that if you're here to read a 1-for-1 retelling of Stardust Crusaders with a tagalong 7th member, this might not be the story for you. I'm gonna be completely honest here, I _did _plan to do just that at the start, with some original Stand fights tossed in here and there for good measure. However, as the story went on and I spoke with some of my readers, they kept telling me how much they enjoyed reading some of the OCs interactions with canon characters and with each other. I wrote more for those OCs based on that feedback, and I realized I really loved developing them further.**

**More importantly, I discovered what I probably should have earlier: that fanfiction, by nature, is meant to explore what-ifs. What if these two characters met long before they were supposed to? What if this one character turned good? What if this character didn't die after all? Of course, there's the sanctity of the original source material, and the original storyline and events of the canon _will _be addressed at a later point; however, by nature of one more person being added to the good guys who wasn't there to begin with, the events of the original timeline will change, it's unavoidable.**

**Put bluntly, I want to explore some of those "what-ifs". I want to tell a new story branching off of what had already happened before. I want to give my favorite characters from the canon some much-deserved development and fleshing out that they might not have gotten in their time in the limelight.**

**I didn't have a plan to begin with, and that may have hurt this work in the long run, but, after seeing people's reactions to events and characters I've created, I've started thinking more about what I want to see these characters do. Spoiler alert, they're going to interfere with the canon storyline of the part several times from here on out. If you aren't okay with that, you don't have to read this. I won't hold that against you.**

**But, if you're open to seeing new things happen in Part 3 with new characters and some added stakes and shenanigans, I encourage you to keep reading. I'll do my best not to disappoint. **

**For those of you who have continued reading so far, thank you so much for the continued support. I really can't express how nice it feels to see that my work or my page has been favorited or followed. Your support keeps me going.**

**I'd also like to keep thanking my editors for this work: SquirreLJ (found on this website), WindSymphony (also found here), and AthenstheGreat (on deviantart). My work definitely wouldn't be as good as it is without them.**

**In addition, SquirreLJ has written a oneshot called "Coffeehouse of Memories," based around the character of Brent Wilson, who is introduced in Season 1, as a continuation of "I Look to You," which is found in the "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Oneshots" on my page. Meanwhile, if the reference to one Miss Hanako Garner was any indication, I have been in the process of intertwining my story with ReBirth, another fanfiction by WindSymphony. I highly recommend you read her work as well, it's quite good!**

**With all that said, I hope you guys stay tuned for the next chapter!**

**-BlueBow**


	3. Chapter 18 - Livin' La Vida Loca

**WARNING: This story contains instances of graphic violence, gore, coarse language, and sexual content. A warning will exist at the beginning of a chapter containing anything explicit, and will be sectioned off by another warning right beforehand, and another line right where the explicit scene ends. You have been warned.**

**Despite the content of this chapter, there are no explicit scenes to be seen this time around!...You'll see what I mean once you read. Just be aware that there's sensitive, non-explicit content ahead. On with the chapter!**

* * *

_One…Two…Three…Four…Five… _The older woman counted internally after hearing her bedmate begin to snore. She began to slip out from under the sheets with as much care as she could muster but she was stopped by a pair of arms wrapping around her left arm. The brunette looked back to see her previously snoring customer looking up at her with sad blue eyes.

"Talia, stay a _little_ longer?" the blue-eyed woman murmured.

Talia sighed, turning away from the other woman and pulling slightly on her arm. "I have to sleep at _some _point, honey. I'm not doing it while I'm on the clock," she muttered.

"But, why can't you sleep _here?"_ the customer pouted.

The brunette glanced back before leaning towards the blue-eyed woman. Talia gently poked her temporary companion's nose with a finger as she grinned. "Can't have my other customers feeling like I'm playing favorites. I've got a business to run, got it?"

The blue-eyed woman whined quietly before reluctantly letting go of Talia's arm. The brunette efficiently slipped back into her black lingerie, over which she wore a tight, black dress with thigh-high stockings and garters, and tied her hair back into a neat bun, all in the span of one minute devoid of sound. Talia quickly disappeared into the bathroom and gazed at her reflection briefly. With a frown, she teased her hair slightly. She walked back out and slipped her red high heels back on before moving without a word to the door.

"Talia!" Upon hearing her name, the brunette looked back at the blue-eyed woman who still lay in bed. "Will…Will I see you again?"

Talia chuckled, her green eyes glimmering in the faint light of the hotel room. "Maybe if you're good…"

The older woman then opened the door and walked out, quietly closing it behind her. With a heavy sigh, Talia reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a small package of cigarettes and a lighter. Walking down the soundproofed halls, she placed a cigarette between her lips and ignited the tip. _Another night gone, _she thought with a lethargic tug on her cigarette. The woman glanced at the front door of her establishment as she exhaled a thin stream of smoke. _The man of my dreams will come through my front doors, huh? Am I just supposed to just know him when I see him? That Houston kid said it would be within the next few days, but no one has…Well, that gruff blond guy was _kinda _something, but isn't my heart supposed to stall if I see the man of my dreams? _Talia shook her head and continued to the back of the lobby to her bedroom, hidden away from the eyes of any prying customers. _Ridiculous…Stupid…_

The small chamber was lit softly by the bedside table lamp, scattering light over the newspaper clippings, dog-eared books, and food wrappers strewn about the floor. Talia locked the door to the room behind her and kicked off her heels. She shuffled over to her bed with a yawn and put out the cigarette in the blackened ashtray next to the lamp. The brunette fell back onto the bed without fanfare. She realized she'd been staring up at the muggy ceiling for longer than she'd thought as she noticed how heavy her eyelids seemed to feel. _I should really clean off… _she yawned again before dismissing her thought and turning onto her side. _I'll give myself…One more day…_ thought the woman, closing her dark green eyes just as she felt a light pressure behind them. _Just one more day…_

* * *

The sound of ambulance sirens was particularly deafening in the nighttime streets of Cairo.

Not paying much attention to the slight sting his body experienced every time he moved it even subtly, Jotaro looked upwards at the clock tower that had been damaged by his friend's attack. The Speedwagon Foundation nurses had already moved his body and said they were going to bring him back to Japan and consult his parents before giving him a proper burial.

_Can you not be quieter while taking care of this? _Jotaro wondered.

"Mr. Kujo!" Out of the corner of his eye, the delinquent noticed a one-armed SPW member approaching him quickly. "Can you come help us?" the employee implored. Jotaro turned to the employee. He hadn't been trying to scare him off, but the way the frailer man cowered slightly made it seem like he was questioning calling out to the thug. "Y-You see…Even with the people we've gathered to help move…_that_, we can only barely budge it."

Against his better judgment, the thug sighed, "Fine."

The trek back to the dock was agonizingly slow. When the two men finally reached the massive steamroller that had seemingly appeared from nowhere, the other SPW members who had been crowding around the vehicle in an attempt to push it out of the way made room for the approaching Stand user. Jotaro stood in front of the steamroller for a few long moments.

"Uhm, Mr. Kujo, do you not want t-"

"ORA!" The cry of Star Platinum rang through the midnight air as the Stand threw an uppercut into the vehicle and turned it over with a single punch. The man who had approached Jotaro looked back to the delinquent. His hat was pulled down over his eyes. "Is that it?" he asked.

The SPW member nodded slowly. "Thank you," said the one-armed man, his voice faltering. It was only then that Jotaro recognized this man as the comrade of the pilot who had transported supplies and Iggy to them.

Without a word, Jotaro walked away from the group of men now working to gather as much as they could of her shattered, pulpified body. As he stopped in an alleyway leading back to the main road, the final moments of the girl forced themselves into his mind.

Dio had stopped time. Jotaro knew that for a fact. Even as he was being threatened with being crushed by the steamroller, he knew that. And yet, somehow, _she _ran in and shoved him out of the way. He needed as much strength as he could in order to finish Dio off. He knew that. And so did she.

Is that why she had smiled at him? Right before she had disappeared…forever. Even then, knowing death had already sunk its black claws into her, she still smiled.

Jotaro fell to his knees and threw his fist into the ground.

_God-!_

* * *

The delinquent's eyes flew open. Looking around, he noticed the simplistic décor of the hotel room he and Polnareff had seen briefly before falling asleep. They were in Aswan; that hadn't changed.

_Dammit_, Jotaro cursed inwardly as he rubbed at his eyes. _That dream felt the same as the one from earlier today, but…_

He sat up before looking to the man in the other bed. Contrary to the delinquent, Polnareff seemed to be sleeping completely peacefully as he snored quietly. Breathing a sigh, Jotaro picked up the pack of cigarettes and lighter he had left on the bedside table and walked to the glass door leading to the balcony.

The night air of the desert sent an appreciated chill down the man's spine as he quietly closed the sliding door behind him. He padded over to the railing without a sound, pulled a cigarette out of the box, and placed it between his lips. The familiar taste of tobacco swept through his mouth as he brought the ignited lighter to the end of the paper stick. Jotaro looked towards the dimly lit streets of the city below him. His gaze panned up to the tops of the buildings.

"I can't see the hospital from this side," he muttered.

"Well, maybe you should get some glasses, then," a familiar voice mimicked in his tone.

Jotaro had not heard the glass door opening again, but, regardless, there was Polnareff, shutting the door behind himself. "Can _you _see it?" the thug asked.

The silver-haired man stepped up to the railing and leaned forward and narrowed his eyes as he looked to the horizon. "Nope, not at all," he concluded after a few moments.

The two men were silent while simply observing their surroundings. Despite the quietude, the atmosphere was far from tense.

"Hey, Jotaro," Polnareff pointed to the carton of cigarettes in the delinquent's hand, "can I have one?" Jotaro offered the box after opening the flap. The Frenchman took one with a smile and placed it in his mouth. No sooner did he do this than the delinquent offered his lit lighter out to Polnareff. "Ah, thank you very much," Polnareff spoke lowly around the cigarette as he lowered the stick to the flame.

"You're quiet today," observed Jotaro, blowing a puff of smoke out into the night air.

Polnareff laughed lightly as he removed the cigarette from his mouth. "You make it sound like I have no concept of volume, Jotaro." The delinquent rolled his eyes at this answer. "So, what's got you out here so late?" Polnareff asked. "Nightmares? Worries?"

"Stuff," Jotaro replied curtly.

"Oh, _I _get it," Polnareff teased with a smirk, "you had some wet dream about you-know-who and are embarrassed to tell me!" Jotaro shook his head. "You know that I'm the last person who would judge you about that kind of thing! Come on, am I right? Did I guess right?" The thug elbowed Polnareff in the side. "Ow, okay, okay, I'll lay off," the Frenchman chuckled. The silver-haired man quieted and gave Jotaro another cursory look before turning back toward the railing. "You know," Polnareff started, "my sister had this little music box I would sit down and just listen to as a kid." Jotaro raised an eyebrow at the other man. "Trust me, I'm going somewhere with this," the Frenchman assured as he leaned over the railing again. "It had such a nice tune, so I would just keep winding it up over and over again. The box worked fine, until, one day, I didn't want to have to keep winding it up to listen to it for a long time, so I just kept turning the knob. I was just a dumb kid, so I didn't expect the box to basically explode into a bunch of parts in my hands."

Polnareff chuckled softly as he reminisced, "When it first happened, I couldn't tell what freaked her out more: the shattered remains of her beloved keepsake or the wood chips and bits of wire stuck in my hand that made it look like a bloody pincushion. Whatever it was, it sent her into a frenzy that had _me _scared. I basically had to try every trick in the book before I finally managed to calm her down." Jotaro gave him a quizzical look. Polnareff blinked, as if waking up from a dream. "Sorry, I'm rambling. Where was I? Oh, right. After that whole fiasco, man, Sherry did _not _let me hear the end of it for a long while. I got her another music box, but it wasn't until I was much older that I got to see it again.

"The music box needed to be wound up just to work in the first place but forcing it to wind up too much made it fall apart. Sherry got hurt, even though I never would have wanted that kind of thing to happen in the first place, and I got hurt by what happened, too. Using tweezers to pull bits of a mechanical toy out of your hands and arms is not fun. Don't even try it, not even if you're just curious." After a few moments, Polnareff turned to Jotaro with a half-grin. "There, I went somewhere with it."

Jotaro was silent before finally speaking up, "That's a bit pretentious."

Polnareff laughed, "You got what I was trying to say, though, right?"

"I guess," the delinquent grunted with a shrug.

"Good," acknowledged the silver-haired man, putting his cigarette out on the railing. He turned back to the glass door with a yawn, "now, go back to sleep."

"Don't tell me what to do," retorted Jotaro, glaring after the Frenchman.

"Yeah, yeah," dismissed Polnareff, opening the door and walking back into the room.

Jotaro sighed and put his cigarette out. He cast one last glance out to the horizon before walking back inside.

* * *

A bland white ceiling slowly came into focus as Suki blinked blearily. She eased her body into a sitting position while her eyes took their time adjusting to the darkness.

_Weird dream…but, more importantly, this looks to be a hospital room again. _As Suki thought, she let out a hearty sneeze. She felt her nose itch slightly. _Ugh, hope it's just someone talking about me…_

Shaking her head, the woman rose from the cot and walked the short distance to the bathroom across from the bed.

As she washed her hands at the sink, Suki sized up her reflection in the mirror. After drying her hands, she looked at the now-soaked bandages along her left palm. She gently pressed her fingers against the wrapping and winced slightly. Glancing at her right leg, she noticed an even wider stretch of white cloth extending up her shin. The girl swallowed thickly and patted at her shorts' pockets. She stiffened upon feeling something in her right pocket.

Suki took a number of deep breaths. She swallowed the rising gunk in her throat. She inserted her hand into her pocket with trepidation and curled her fingers around the object. The girl had not realized she had wrenched her eyes shut until she forced herself to examine the item in her hand. She carefully removed the thin leather sheath to reveal the metal of the blade, still reddened by the blood of its recent victim. As Suki stared at it, she noticed her right hand shaking as it gripped the weapon. She wrapped her left hand around her other wrist to steady herself. Looking to the sink, she plodded forward with heavy steps. She turned the water on with one hand and let the liquid trickle over the dirty knife.

"_Fight like your life depended on it!" _Her brother's words echoed in her head.

A painful screeching noise reached her ears, as she had accidentally dragged the blade across the bowl of the sink. Flinching and stepping back, the girl covered her ears. She fell to her knees as she clenched her fists in her hair.

_I want…I-I want- _She shook her head. _Whit said I had some grand undertaking…I…have to…_

"Knight," Suki called weakly while turning her gaze to her Stand as she summoned her from the running water, "I need-!" She stopped short.

The wraith that floated in front of the girl flickered hazily in the dull lighting of the bathroom. The hood that had sat behind her head now covered it completely. Its previously obvious expressions were now masked by the aqueous hood. Knight of Cups appeared to move in slow motion, as she peered under her hood and examined her even more transparent arms that were still covered by the liquid cloak.

"Kn-Knight," the girl addressed as she rose to her feet and approached her Stand, "what's going on?"

The spirit shook her head. She reached out to the running water to direct Suki's attention to it. Without a word, the girl extended her arm towards the faucet with an open palm. She visualized a simple staff in her mind. What manifested was a large blob of water, floating and undulating in the air above her hand like a bubble. Suki's eyes widened. She proceeded to insert her hand into it. She found that even as her fingers passed the liquid shell, there was still a body of water held within the confines. After replacing the water, Suki retried this experiment while visualizing any weapon she could think of.

Every time, all that was given physical form was the same, misshapen water ball.

The girl turned her gaze to the spirit, who held her head in her hands. Meeting her user's eyes (as far as Suki could tell), Knight of Cups pleadingly clasped her hands in front of her.

Suki moved to her partner and covered Knight's hands with her own. She rested her head against both pairs of hands and closed her eyes. Knight of Cups pulled her hands away and wrapped her arms around the girl. Her user could feel the tremble in Knight's shoulders echoing in her own bones. Suki returned the embrace and rested her head on her companion's shoulder.

After a few moments, the girl pulled back from the spirit's arms and nodded. She then turned to the sink and plucked the knife from the basin. She dried the blade with a nearby towel while her Stand hesitated for a second before rejoining the figure of her user. Suki watched the reflection of her eyes in the shine of the knife before sheathing it and placing it in her pocket once more. She stared at her left palm. A moment passed before she slowly removed the wet bandages. After eyeing up the thin red gash in her hand, she walked back into the main room and picked up a roll of bandages sitting on a rolling cart left abandoned next to the bed. Breathing a sigh after re-bandaging her hand, she moved back to the bed. Laying down and covering herself with the thin sheets, she closed her eyes and allowed her mind to wander.

Her thoughts meandered to what could happen when she returned home, what would happen afterwards. She continued to have a sick feeling in the back of her throat as she tried to lull herself to sleep. Suki's train of thought flickered to Jotaro and their interactions over the past few days. She turned onto her right side.

_He said he was _confused_. He's been so nice to me, when…_ She recalled the sets of girls that pestered him in the memory Michel showed. She remembered the times duos or trios of girls had approached him with questions that seemed trivial or vapid. _He always responded to them the same way. Not that that ever stopped them. So, why does he treat me differently? It's not just because I'm one of the few people in the group who can speak Japanese. He said I'm the only one who seems to care about his answers to questions I ask him. I don't ask without a reason. But…how does he know I have one? How seriously am I supposed to take a statement like, "You intrigue me"? I didn't ask any questions before, but now my mind is flooding with them…_

_He's not going to look at me the same way again, so why should I care about what he thought before?_

Suki groaned and turned to her right again. She realized too late that there was not enough bed to catch her as she repositioned herself and fell to the floor with a thud. "Goddammit," she whispered.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of something being knocked over in the room right next to hers. Her breath caught in her throat. She heard shuffling noises faintly permeating the wall between the rooms. With a heavy swallow, Suki pulled herself to her feet and crept to the door of her room. Turning the knob with trepidation, she slowly inched the door open. She squinted as the light from the much more well-lit hallway splashed through the doorway. The girl poked her head out to scan down both directions of the hall before slipping out and shutting the door. The noises from the neighboring room seemed to have grown fainter, but they still persisted as Suki approached the door. She felt a shudder go down her spine as she closed her eyes lightly. Hardening her resolve with a deep breath, she quickly turned the knob and pushed the door open. The door seemed to give much more than her own, as though someone was pulling it from the other side. As a result, Suki fell forward into the room. She heard a small gasp before she threw her arms out in front of her to catch herself, expecting to hit the floor.

She felt no such impact. The man behind the door caught her. She found she recognized the man who had been bathed in the glow of the hallway lights.

"N-Nori?" She spoke uncertainly, pushing herself up slightly to look at Kakyoin's face. Her mouth fell open slightly. She had expected warm, purple eyes to gaze back at her. Instead, those same eyes were covered by a thin layer of bandages.

"Suki," the redhead called quietly as he gripped her elbow before moving his hand up her arm to her shoulder. He blindly moved his hand up to her head. His fingertips landed behind her ear before he readjusted his hand to rest on her cheek. He smiled softly and murmured, "I had a feeling it was you."

"Nori…" the girl sighed and felt a wave of relief drown her as she pulled the honor student into a hug. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Kakyoin returned the gesture, rubbing her back comfortingly. "It's not your fault. Please, don't cry."

Suki shook her head. "I'm not crying. Don't worry about that," she reassured. Pulling back from the embrace, she shut the door behind her before smiling up at the man. "Here, I'll help you back to the bed."

"That won't be necessary," the honor student dismissed before turning on his heel and slowly shuffling back to the cot. Hierophant Green emerged before spreading his tentacles across the floor. The Stand moved methodically so as not to knock anything over. And yet, as Suki took a closer look around the room, her eyes having adjusted to the darkness, she saw that a cart that had been rolled up beside the bed on the window side had been knocked over. Recognizing the similar design of the cart, she also recognized the tray of seemingly untouched food that had fallen to the floor. Exhaling a small sigh, the brunette carefully followed Kakyoin to the bed in the small case that he did stumble.

"Oh, right," Suki realized, "did you wake up at all on the way to the hospital?"

"I did," Kakyoin affirmed with a nod.

"Do you know what happened to the copilot? The man who lost his hand…" asked the girl, casting her eyes away.

The honor student smiled. "He is here as well," he answered, "but I believe he's on a higher floor. He mentioned to Mr. Joestar that he's thankful for what you did and, if you need anything of his section of the foundation in the future, just ask for Beck."

_So he made it out alright, _Suki breathed a sigh of relief, _I'll remember that._

"By the way," the redhead began, "are you alright? Your voice sounds a bit different, like you're holding your nose."

"R-Really? I don't hear anything different," Suki said.

"It might just be that I can hear things more clearly, now that I can't see, but you sound ever-so-slightly congested," he responded.

"Maybe something got caught up my nose yesterday in the desert," the girl said with a sniffle.

Kakyoin fortunately made his way back to the cot without falling and carefully set himself back down on the bed. Suki sat down in one of the chairs next to it. "Did a nightmare wake you up?" he asked as he pulled the covers over his legs and propped himself up on the bed.

"Not really. It was more of a weird dream," she murmured, examining her hands in her lap. "So weird. I don't really know what it was supposed to mean…"

"Would talking about it help?"

"Uhm, maybe," guessed the girl, leaning back and tilting her head to look at the ceiling. She took one long blink before she recalled what she had seen. "I was…in the middle of the desert. I couldn't really tell if it was Egypt or not; everything was covered in fog. I was lying on my back in the sand, and I saw… four vultures, all circling me. They were calling out to each other, one right after the other. I remember…I felt scared. I felt hopeless. But, then," Suki countered as a small smile tilted her lips up, "I saw this man approach me. I couldn't see him through the fog, but I wasn't afraid anymore, after seeing him. He held a hand out towards me…and I took it. His skin was rough, and scarred, but he was warm. He made me the calmest I'd ever felt in a dream. I didn't see his face before I woke up," she concluded. After a moment, the girl shook her head. "I still don't know what that was supposed to mean."

Kakyoin brushed his left fingers over his right palm. He tried to push down the sinking feeling in his stomach as his digits met smooth, unblemished skin. The honor student looked toward Suki. He could only hear her voice in the darkness, so he was forced to rely on his imagination to fill in the blanks. He recalled the gentle smile she gave him, which never failed to melt his heart. Even so, it was…

The honor student took a deep breath, clenching his hands in the sheets. He opened his mouth with a statement on his tongue, but Suki beat him to speaking. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Kakyoin's breath caught in his throat. He swallowed, then took another breath. "I wanted…to say something," he declared softly. He fidgeted with the covers. Suki waited silently as he parsed through his thoughts. "The last thing…I told you, the last thing I want…is to hurt you. I don't want to say what I'm thinking right now but, if I don't tell you now, I feel like it will just get worse." His voice shook as the words passed his lips. "I can't…We don't…I don't think…" He gestured between the two of them, "_this…_will…work."

Suki's mouth fell slightly agape. She thought for a few moments before speaking up, "Why…do you think that?"

"It's difficult but, the best way I think I can say this is…It's not you, it's…it's me," Kakyoin confided. He carefully reached out and managed to place his hand on Suki's head. "I assure you, it's not because of anything you did. Please, _please_, don't blame yourself. Alright?"

Suki took his hand between both of hers and removed it from her head, absentmindedly placing it in her lap. "I won't but…are you…are you sure? I don't want to-"

"I'm positive."

"But, I feel like it has something to do with the dream I had! You hadn't thought about this kind of thing before. I didn't think…" Suki trailed off.

"I've been thinking about it longer than I'm proud of," Kakyoin confessed. "I thought, 'only in my wildest dreams would I get to be in that kind of relationship with her.' Turns out, it was just that: a dream. I could only ever dream of matching the happiness he brings to you."

The girl looked down at Kakyoin's hand between hers. A moment passed before she shook her head. "But what about what happened on the sub? Didn't that… Did that not...?"

"That was..." Kakyoin swallowed as his cheeks grew red. After a moment, he cleared his throat and continued, "On a journey where life or death is a genuine concern...we may have been a bit hasty. After all, I'm not sure you got as much out of that as I would've liked you to. Even then, you wouldn't really want to try again, would you?"

Suki's breath caught in her throat. "I-is this because you saw me crying in the bathroom?"

"That's...part of the reason, yes."

"Wait, wait, I'm confused," the brunette implored as she bit her lip. "Weren't you, Jotaro, and I, weren't we going to...you know? What's the point of breaking up, unless he wouldn't be into it?"

He sighed, "It's not just that he's not into it. I might've misread his signals. I thought he might have felt the same way I think I do, but," he paused, "I likely completely misinterpreted, not just his feelings, but my own as well."

Suki gazed at the honor student. His voice carried a heavy tinge of confusion, but underneath it all was a hint of loneliness, the depths of which she couldn't begin to describe. "I…don't…" Suki objected sluggishly. Her mouth wouldn't cooperate with her. Right now, she wanted beyond anything to assure the honor student that everything was fine, that she _did _care about him in the exact same way as she cared about Jotaro, that Kakyoin made her just as happy as Jotaro did, that she could devote herself to both equally.

But, she couldn't.

The woman tightened her grip on his hand. "I feel like a terrible person," she admitted softly.

"I told you, don't blame-"

"I'm not blaming myself!" Suki denied a little louder than she had intended to. "I don't...want to feel like all that happened between us was for nothing."

The redhead was silent for a few moments. "It wasn't for nothing. I mean, I've never had a girlfriend before, and you've never had a boyfriend proper, right? Not before we got together?" The brunette laughed nervously but didn't deny his statement. Kakyoin chuckled softly as he tried to lighten the mood. "I learned a bit more about you, and you learned a bit more about me. When we go our separate ways, we can use the experience to be better for next time, right?"

"That's...a more measured way of looking at it than I would've thought," the woman mused. "Even so, I still feel like I'd be leaving you alone here."

"You wouldn't be, believe me," Kakyoin said with a reassuring smile. "After all, we'd still be friends, wouldn't we?"

"Y-Yeah, of course," agreed Suki, shakily smiling.

"And I still have Jotaro, Abdul, Mr. Joestar, and Polnareff. I'm far from alone. So, don't worry about me, alright?" the honor student asked.

The brunette was quiet as she stared down at her hands, which still clutched the gentle fingers of the honor student. She recalled how the texture of his fingertips had felt against her cheek, her lips, her hand. She absentmindedly thought his hand wasn't as rough as she expected, his grip not as strong as she wanted it to be. It was the self-aware realization of these thoughts that finally encouraged her to loosen her grip and allow Kakyoin's hand to drift back to him.

A long pause filled the space between the two. The murmurings of the nurses as they passed by the closed door sounded so distant.

"You'll also be happy to hear that the doctor from the Speedwagon Foundation said I won't lose my eyesight. It has been damaged, but it isn't gone," the redhead assured.

"Th-That's great," Suki sighed with an internal realization.

"It will take a few days for me to get back on my feet under the doctor's care, but I will join back up with you all as soon as I am able," the honor student assured. His expression became grave as he continued, "I'm not sure if you will reach Dio's mansion before I return, though, so I wanted to ask for a favor."

"I don't know…if I'll be able to go," Suki muttered.

"Ah, right, I haven't heard if Mr. Joestar has changed his mind or not. Jotaro could probably do this favor for me as well." Kakyoin shook his head. "Regardless, what I need you to do: there's a girl I know…I met her at Dio's mansion back when I was on vacation with my parents. She has dark brown hair and green eyes. Her name is Hanako Garner. Can you make sure she's alright?"

"S-So..," Suki began, "you _do _know Hana-chan!"

"Y-Yes, I didn't think _you_ knew her," the honor student marveled.

"I met her in the market a few times while _I _was working under Dio! I should've _known _something was up," muttered Suki, grasping her hair in her fists, "but, of course, yet again, I didn't, because I'm a complete fucking _idiot_!"

"Suki," Kakyoin called out to the girl sternly. She looked up in surprise, before his expression softened, "what matters is that you know now, and can help her once you meet up with her."

"That's…true," Suki admitted. "What brought this on, though? I've…never heard you mention her before."

Kakyoin touched his forehead, rubbing the thin skin just above his hairline. "Many of my memories from being flesh-budded were blurred together," he shared quietly. "I remember what I did more than who I interacted with or why. That encounter with Michel brought deeply buried experiences to light for me, and…and I remember that girl. Even being brainwashed, I feel like she was truly the first person I could call 'friend'. I want…I want to make sure she's safe. I want to protect her."

Suki blinked. After a moment, she gave him a small smile and reassured, "We'll do everything we can to make sure she's safe, but you know, you might be with us before we even see her!"

"Perhaps, but I wanted to make sure, in case I wouldn't have caught up with you yet."

The brunette nodded. She twiddled her fingers. Her mind flicked between her conflicted emotions as she quietly debated with herself about returning to her room alone.

"Would you like to sleep in here, Suki?" the honor student asked.

Startled out of her thoughts, Suki stammered, "U-Uhm, well, you don't have to do that if you don't want to…"

"Nonsense. I know how you are with hospitals. Leaving you alone in your room at night would be a punishment I wouldn't dream of causing," he explained with an understanding smile.

Suki gave a half-smile back before he began to shift further to one side on the bed. "O-Oh, no, I was just gonna sleep on the chairs," she retorted weakly.

"Absolutely not," the honor student denied glibly while pushing the pillow further towards Suki. "If you are sleeping in this room, you are sleeping on a bed. That is final."

The girl felt her face heat up slightly before climbing into the spot Kakyoin had left open for her. As she lay on her left side, she saw the redhead had turned to face the window, away from her.

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a few moments as she stared at his back. It felt like there was some sort of invisible wall barring the two from each other until the honor student spoke up gently, "Goodnight, Suki."

Suki exhaled a small breath before turning away from him and closing her eyes. "Goodnight…Kakyoin," she mumbled as a tense feeling rose and settled into her chest.

* * *

"So, that's the extent of what you can do with your Stand?" Abdul asked.

Suki dispelled the small blob of water, which glinted slightly in the morning light filtering through the hospital room windows. She nodded. "I can change the size, but otherwise that's everything," she shared as she held her head in one hand, "I have no idea what's happening to me…"

Jotaro, Polnareff, and Joseph all exchanged a look while Abdul hummed in thought. Kakyoin's grip tightened on the sheets over him.

"I have not witnessed many cases of Stands developing further beyond a base state, but the fact that those cases _have _occurred would suggest that this isn't entirely abnormal." the fortune teller explained. "I'd like to believe that this will not be a permanent condition."

"Hopefully it won't be," Suki said. "That being said, though…I need to ask: can I…can I still go with you guys, at least part of the way? I get this…_really _bad feeling that my mom's in danger. I want to get back to her as soon as I can."

_Michel's encounter with that blond woman on the coast… The woman said, 'That's where you live. Rather, where you _did _live,' _Suki recalled, _that would mean either our suburb in Cairo was attacked, or Michel's home specifically was attacked. I have to…I have to _know.

"Even if I can't use my Stand," Suki began, pulling out the sheathed knife from her pocket, "I can still use this. I know they won't be expecting _that_, at least."

The four unharmed men said nothing. Kakyoin broke the silence. "Do you want to talk abou-"

"It's fine," Suki dismissed with a reassuring smile. "It's not _abnormal _for this kind of thing to happen, right? There's no need…no need to waste time talking about it," she stated, rising to her feet. "There's no need at all. Let's just-"

"It wouldn't be a waste of time," rebuked Polnareff, stepping over to the girl. In response, she cast her eyes away and lowered her eyelids. "Hey, listen to me!"

"That's enough, Polnareff," Abdul interjected. "If she's going to talk about it, it has to be voluntary on her end, too."

The Frenchman exhaled a sigh. "Right. Sorry about that."

The girl gave a small smile. "It's fine," she assured. "Don't worry about it. So, is it okay to come along?"

"Just stick close to us, and you should be fine," Jotaro finally stated while casting his gaze out the window. The others nodded.

"Before you all depart," interjected Kakyoin, turning his head to where he believed Jotaro to be standing, "could I speak with you for a moment, Jotaro?"

Polnareff, Abdul, and Joseph nodded before walking out of the room. Suki began to fall into step before she stopped. She paused for several long moments in the doorway before quickly turning on her heel and walking back over to Kakyoin. After another pregnant moment, she pulled him into a tight hug. The honor student seemed startled before he relaxed slightly and returned the gesture. After a moment, the girl pulled back and stood up fully. She turned to Jotaro and exchanged a nod before exiting the room. The delinquent sat down in the chair closest to the honor student. The seat creaked disapprovingly under his weight.

"…Sorry for causing you trouble…" started the redhead, fiddling with the sheets in his hands, "I held you back in a place like this. Even if I did reap what I sowed, it's still pathetic. Because of that, I made you worry about me. At that time, I was negligent…"

Jotaro folded his arms and leaned back in the chair. "…Don't sweat it. It's not your fault. You'll get back to us, and we'll take Dio down," he guaranteed.

A moment passed before Kakyoin gave a sincere smile and nodded.

"However, don't do anything reckless. I won't be as considerate next time," the thug warned.

"Yeah. S-Sorry…" the honor student replied.

"Is that it?" Jotaro asked.

"No, actually," Kakyoin denied, "I wanted to tell you something." A moment passed before he asked, "You know how I said that Suki and I had an 'open' relationship?" He heard the delinquent hum in recognition. "Well...we kind of...don't, anymore."

Jotaro blinked. "I'll back off-"

"N-No, that's not what I'm saying!" Kakyoin denied as he waved his hands defensively. "I mean...we broke up."

A palpable silence followed this statement. The redhead feared he had said something out of turn as the quiet seemed to drag on, until his ally spoke up, "So, you're just giving up on her?"

"You could…say that," Kakyoin confessed as Jotaro raised an eyebrow, "but not for the reasons you think." A pause, a breath, then, "There's something about her that never completely clicked in my mind. I would keep remembering that she had previously served Dio, not as a genuine ally, but as someone who always planned on stabbing him in the back. I kept wondering, 'How could someone like her, who wears her heart on her sleeve, be able to keep everything under wraps?' Once that question came to me, more followed: 'Why was she so accepting of the circumstances of her brother's conception, the ones her mother had never told her about?' 'How could she pretend to be someone she isn't under her brother's direction, for so many years, without growing exhausted?' 'Why are the people closest to her willing to look past a facade she's continued to hold up for so long?'" The honor student paused. "I think her thoughts, her motives, her inspirations...they are entirely free of falsity. As I've gotten closer to her, though, with how easily she smiles, how easily she cries, something about it...It doesn't feel entirely real."

"You've been psychoanalyzing her?" Jotaro asked.

Kakyoin huffed a light chuckle. "I've just watched a lot of people. I've seen them experience joy, anguish, rage...all from afar. Even from a distance, though, I could still see their eyes portraying what they felt. For her, though...not every smile reaches her eyes. I'm not sure she even realizes what she's holding back."

The delinquent sat back in his chair as he stared at the ceiling. "I told her, 'don't hold it in anymore,' but she just ended up crying harder. I didn't think she was _that _unaware," he sighed as he closed his eyes in contemplation.

"I think if she can be more aware of when she's...truly feeling something, that will help. She'll be happier that way. That's why I let her go," the redhead confessed.

"I don't follow."

"Whenever she talks to you, or even talks _about _you," Kakyoin reminisced as a soft smile pulled at his lips, "she gets this bright look in her eye. Her smile is like starlight, and she looks so genuinely _happy. _It's completely incomparable to any other content expression she's worn. It's amazing and beautiful, and…I'm honestly surprised you didn't notice that yourself, Jotaro." The thug was silent. Kakyoin smirked. "Or did you believe it was because of the subject matter you would discuss?" The honor student immediately felt an icy glare on him at this statement, to which he laughed softly. "Relax, I'm not saying it can't be a combination of the two." He sensed the cold look dissipating as Jotaro occupied himself with his thoughts. "I know how much you care about her, and she really likes you, as well. I think you two make a good pair."

A moment passed before Jotaro spoke up, "Is that all you wanted to tell me?"

Kakyoin cleared his throat and sniffled slightly before speaking. "I have a small request."

* * *

"Yep, that's basically what he told me, word-for-word," Suki affirmed as she looked out over the railing of the boat the Speedwagon Foundation had chartered for them. "It's still so weird though. Not only did Kakyoin know Hana-chan, but she's associated with _Dio_, too?"

"She didn't seem flesh-budded to you?" asked Jotaro, looking down into the rolling waves as he stood beside the girl.

Suki shook her head. "I might've been able to pick up on her being flesh-budded between when I first met her and when I last saw her, if her Stand's abilities were altered."

"Altered?" the delinquent repeated with narrowed eyes.

"I don't know what it is about that gross bundle of vampire cells Dio puts into you, but it does…_something_ that inhibits your Stand," the girl recalled with a grimace. "He sent me out to capture a few rogue Stand users who 'dared cross him,' and he ended up flesh-budding them afterwards. It's disgusting."

"Wait, you said…it makes Stands _weaker_?" Jotaro probed.

"Yeah, why?" Suki responded.

"Well, you see…"

As the two conversed, the black-haired helmsman at the bow of the vessel was tapped on the shoulder by a man with striking pink hair and a heavy-looking toolkit in his hand. The driver turned to the other man and grinned. "Ah, guess that's the end of my shift, then. She's all yours," he yawned while stepping away from the wheel.

"Thank you…" grumbled the pink-haired man, setting the box down by the wheel without a sound.

Jotaro raised his head and turned to the sound of the voice. Suki looked up at him curiously. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"I've…heard that voice before…" muttered the thug, trudging over to the new helmsman. Suki followed closely behind as Jotaro walked up to the pink-haired man. Roughly placing a hand on the smaller man's shoulder, the delinquent turned the driver towards him. "Hey, are you-"

The helmsman looked up at Jotaro with wide blue eyes. This was the first time Suki had seen a man on the open waters who was so clean-cut, with no facial hair to speak of decorating his cleft chin or incredibly low cheekbones. She would admit that his build was familiar, but…

"Something I can help you with, sir?" the man all but squeaked out. His high-pitched tone was unfamiliar to Suki. She turned to Jotaro, who seemed equally confused.

"Tch," scoffed Jotaro, turning back to where he had come from and beginning to walk back, "must've imagined it."

Suki looked back to the pink-haired man, who gave her a nervous look. She returned a sheepish smile before following Jotaro back to the railing. "Who'd you think that was?" she asked quietly.

The delinquent shoved his hands into his pockets and narrowed his eyes while returning his gaze to the Nile river below. "I forget his name, but…that one guy…You kept smirking whenever you heard his name."

Suki thought for a few moments before her eyes lit up. "Are you talking about Willy?"

"Yeah, him."

"Why the hell would he be _here_, though?" wondered the girl, folding her arms.

"Beats the hell out of me. He wouldn't have an excuse this time around, though, I'll say that much," Jotaro grumbled.

"Oh, it just occurred to me," Suki said, "Did anything happen while N- while Kakyoin and I were in the hospital? Any enemy Stand users to speak of?"

"No," the delinquent denied, "but there was one pair of guys that followed us for a while. I'm not sure if they were Stand users, though."

"They just stopped following you at some point?" wondered Suki, sniffing and scrunching up her nose.

"Hey, are you sick?" Jotaro asked.

"Nah, I think it's just allergies. I got knocked into the sand yesterday so something must have floated up my nose and stopped it up," mused the girl, rubbing her nose. "But, keep talking about those guys who followed you?"

"Well, Abdul kept glaring at the kid and his…older brother, I think. This happened a few times, and then we didn't see them again," Jotaro explained before sighing. "It was weird."

"He sure can be scary, when he wants to be," Suki noted with a nervous laugh. "Kind of reminds me of—!"

Suddenly, a large impact shook the vessel, throwing Suki back. Jotaro caught her by the arm as he held onto the railing. "Not even for a day, huh?" she heard him mutter, as he looked up to the helm. As he observed the now-unmanned wheel, a loud splashing sound reached the ears of the two people on deck.

"But, how did…?!" Suki pulled herself toward the railing and looked down. There was no longer water there, but solid ground, the hull of the boat having taken a clear hit from the crash landing. "What the…"

Abdul, Polnareff, Iggy, Mr. Joestar, and the three crewmen, led by the previous helmsman, all rushed out from below deck.

"What the hell happened?!" Polnareff shouted. "A bunch of rocks just exploded into the ship!"

"That driver ran the ship aground…" Jotaro muttered.

"You two!" the black-haired helmsman shouted as he turned to his other two crewmates. "Go assess the situation! I've got a dumbass part-timer to find!" With that, the group split. The leader of the group looked about the bow of the ship before turning to the group of four men, a girl, and a dog. "You should leave the boat. It might be dangerous to stick around here."

The group nodded and began to disembark.

* * *

"So, let me get this straight…" began Mr. Joestar, scratching at his beard, "You two didn't know we were heading straight for dry land until you looked away?"

"The guy who took over at the wheel was probably making us see things with his Stand," Jotaro claimed. "We didn't look away until we felt the impact."

The helmsman walked up to the group after conversing with his coworkers in front of the damaged ship. "This might be obvious info now, but there's a giant hole in the hull, from where the ship hit land. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but we'd be lucky to get that repaired tomorrow, if not the next day. You guys might want to look elsewhere for faster travel."

"Yeah. I just sent Abdul and Polnareff off to ask around and see when the next boat is heading out. Hopefully soon," the old man mused.

"Any luck finding that part-timer?" Suki inquired.

The helmsman's face scrunched up in anger before he took a deep breath. "No sign of him," he reported. "He definitely couldn't have swam far enough that he'd be out of sight by the time we got to the deck, and you all would have seen him if he had ran past you."

"Maybe he stayed underwater until you looked away?" the brunette wondered.

"Not possible," the black-haired man rejected. "Even if that boy _can _swim, he'd want out as soon as possible. He would've resurfaced, and one of us would've seen him."

"Hey, boss!" one of the crewmates called out to the helmsman.

"Be right back," the helmsman assured before turning and returning to the vessel.

"Sounds like a hydrophobe…Those aren't too common," Jotaro stated.

Suki pursed her lips and turned to the delinquent. "How many times do I have to tell you, it wasn't him!"

"Who are you talking about?" Joseph asked.

"Jotaro is convinced that the guy we saw was Willy, from back at the aquarium and the ship to Singapore. He didn't even look like him, though, and you only _thought_ he sounded like him," Suki reasoned. "Besides, his Stand only cloaks people, it doesn't alter perception of the world around them."

"How do you know he wasn't lying about that?" the delinquent shot back.

"He's a friend! He wouldn't lie to us!" replied Suki, her voice rising.

"We've met him a grand total of twice."

"So? Minaj and I became friends after we met _one_ time!" Suki defended.

"That isn't the norm," he responded.

"How would you know?" she snapped.

"How would _you _know, bitch?" Jotaro growled.

"What the _fuck_ did you just—?"

"Would you two kids quit yelling at each other?" scolded the old man, stepping between Jotaro and Suki. "Neither of you is going to change the way the other thinks by screaming at each other, and we're definitely not going to reach a conclusion to whether or not we can trust that young man we met by using that method, either. Alright?"

"Mr. Joestar!" Joseph turned to see Abdul calling out to him with Polnareff following close behind. The old man cast a brief glance back to the two young adults before walking over to speak with the other two men.

Jotaro and Suki locked eyes before looking away. The girl leaned to one side. She rubbed her elbow as she bit her lip. The man fiddled with the brim of his hat and shoved his other hand in his pocket.

"I was…out of line. I shouldn't have said that," Suki apologized. "But I'm…_sensitive_ about that word, about being called a bitch. Please...don't call me that."

The delinquent's eyebrows shot up. A tense moment passed before he finally spoke lowly, "I didn't-"

"If it was a slip, I'll forgive it," Suki allowed with a stilted sigh, "Just, don't do it often, alright?"

The thug nodded. "…Sorry," he confessed quietly.

"It's fine," the brunette assured with a half-smile. After Jotaro cast his eyes away, the brunette gazed up at him. _That came too easily to him...or am I thinking too hard about this? _she thought.

At that moment, the helmsman walked back toward the duo. Jotaro looked up as he approached, causing Suki to look in the same direction. The helmsman sighed. "Looks like it _will _be finished by the day after tomorrow, since that jackass absconded with the onboard toolkit, and it's getting too late to search for another one."

"I'm really sorry to hear about that, sir," Suki sympathized. Joseph, Abdul, and Polnareff all reconvened with the group. The girl turned to chat with them. "Any luck?" she inquired.

"Unfortunately, the next boat doesn't leave until tomorrow, midmorning," Abdul explained. "It's a ship for moving cargo, so we'll be functioning off their schedule, but, in the meantime, we'll have to find a place to stay around here."

"What about Sweeter than Fiction?" the helmsman suggested.

"What the hell is that?" Polnareff asked.

"It's a really nice hotel just down the road," the black-haired man described, becoming more excited as he specified in more and more detail. "It's got something for everyone: good service, good entertainment, and an owner who always puts customer needs first! I've stayed there seven separate times, and it's always been great! I highly recommend it!"

"Well, if it's the only hotel nearby, it might be our only option," Joseph conceded. Turning to the group, he announced, "Let's go give it a look."

* * *

The heavy double doors led into an incredibly spacious lobby of the three-story building. The evening sun filtering through the windows, the warm colors, and the plush furniture gave off the atmosphere of a lounge that more than just hotel-goers frequented, and yet the polished marble reception desk right across from the entrance clued in any who entered on the fact that, yes, this was indeed a hotel. The graphic paintings hanging from the almost pink, red walls spoke of refined taste, but the lack of any other type of art piece, aside from the map, potentially, could make one wonder what tone the owner was trying to set. Even with the weighty slam of the doors, the buzz of the people chattering in the lobby did not falter.

The soft, comforting glow of the ceiling lights illuminated the woman wearing a tight black dress behind the counter. She appeared to be busy: looking over a document with a pen pressed between her lips. Her evergreen eyes glanced up briefly upon hearing the sounds of footsteps approaching. With an almost inaudible sigh, she pulled the writing utensil from between her lips and placed it on the table. She cast her gaze to the group of people that had entered and fixed them with her winning smile. "Welcome to-!" she cut off her greeting. Her eyes widened as they landed on the four men that had walked in. She seemed taken aback for less than a nanosecond before she quickly regained her composure and sashayed around the counter. "Hello there. Welcome to Sweeter than Fiction. I'm Talia Swift," She welcomed sultrily. Her lips curled up in a languid grin as she approached and her eyes fell half-lidded. "How many rooms should I arrange for? Or, were you all planning on going the deluxe route?"

Joseph was clearly caught off-guard by her greeting before he cleared his throat. "We were planning on taking a look around before arranging for any rooms," he corrected.

Talia puckered her lips slightly before returning to the smile she had first spoken with. "That's quite alright. Take all the time you need," she comforted. Her expression grew disdainful as her eyes lowered to the canine by Mr. Joestar's feet, "but, no dogs allowed in the building."

"Sorry about that," Suki mumbled curtly before pulling out a strip of coffee gum. The Boston Terrier sniffed at the air before his eyes landed on the treat. He wagged his tail and barked as the girl began to lead him out of the hotel. "Be right back!" she called behind her.

Once outside of the building, she tossed the gum in the dog's direction. Iggy caught the candy in his mouth and began to chew. He then turned back to the hotel and hunkered down on his front legs and growled in its direction.

"I know, buddy," Suki sympathized before gazing up at the building. Her eyes narrowed. "It weirds me out, too." With a small sigh, she pulled out a pack of gum she had bought and placed it in front of Iggy. She scratched his ears. "Just stick close by, okay?"

Without an affirmative or a negative, the canine merely picked up the pack between his teeth and dashed off around the corner of the building. Suki blinked and then walked back into the hotel. She quickly rejoined the group of men after reentering. "So, what's the plan?" she asked in general.

"There are apparently a club and a bar in this hotel, so we thought it would be best to split up and examine those places first," Joseph explained before gesturing to himself and his grandson. "We'll check the bar, which is down the left hallway."

"That leaves you, Polnareff, and myself to look around the club, which is down the right hallway," Abdul added.

"Got it," Suki agreed with a nod.

"Let's hope for no enemy Stand users," wished Polnareff, crossing his fingers.

"Don't jinx it," Jotaro sighed.

The image of Jotaro stepping off the dock in Privacy's realm played in her mind unbidden. _Why am I remembering that now? _the brunette wondered as she tensed involuntarily. She shook her head in an attempt to dispel the thought. "H-Hey," started Suki, approaching the delinquent. She looked up at him, her concerned eyes communicating a sudden shot of a bad feeling she received. "You'll be careful, right?"

Jotaro pulled the brim of his hat lower over his eyes. "Don't worry so much. I'll be fine," he grumbled.

"Oh-ho, is someone playing favorites?" teased Polnareff, ruffling the girl's hair.

"N-No, I'm not!" Suki denied as her cheeks heated up. "I want all of you to be okay!"

"Were you gonna give everyone that same look you gave him when you said to 'be careful'?" he mimicked with a higher pitch an impish grin.

"There's no need to tease her so much, Polnareff," chastised Abdul, stifling a small chuckle.

"Yeah, Polnareff!" the girl agreed with a pout.

"After all," Abdul continued, "it's completely normal for her to prioritize warnings differently when she is romantically involved with someone."

The brunette's eyes widened as she turned back to the fortune teller, ignoring Polnareff's snicker. "Why'd you have to say that?"

"Well, I can't very well lie about what's happening right in front of me," Abdul defended.

"I think she means you should've stopped at 'stop teasing her'," Jotaro explained as he straightened his cap out.

"Aw, but where's the fun in that?" Joseph taunted with a smirk.

The delinquent sighed. "Give me a break," he muttered.

The group split. Unbeknownst to them, a pair of eyes was heatedly watching them as they strolled down their separate hallways.

* * *

"Wow, this place is pretty swanky," Joseph complimented with an appreciative whistle. Not minding the quiet conversations of the other patrons who cast brief glances to the duo, he sat down on one of the velvet-seated barstools situated in front of the polished wooden counter. The old man eyed the broad library of alcoholic drinks lining the shelves behind the bar. "Wonder if they've got anything good…"

"Hey, old man, we didn't come here to drink," chided Jotaro, casting his eyes about the sparsely populated bar. "And that sickeningly sweet smell followed us into this room, too. Does it ever end?"

"That aroma aside," the old man sighed, "you're gonna snap if you stay that high-strung the whole time."

"This, coming from the guy whose daughter could die if we run out of time," grumbled the thug, stepping behind the suspiciously unmanned bar and crouching to examine the shelves of the counter.

"Would you get out from back there?" Mr. Joestar reprimanded. Seeing his grandson wasn't going to listen, with the clinking of glasses in front of him continuing uninhibited, the old man rested an elbow on the bar and propped up his cheek with his prosthetic fist. "I'm not saying don't take what we're doing seriously. I'm telling you to at least take five seconds to breathe, relax. After all, we're not gonna be able to once we find Dio."

The noises behind the counter stopped. Curious, Mr. Joestar looked over the bar to see Jotaro sitting against the wall and staring up at the ceiling. The delinquent closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. At this moment, the old man could see clearly just how sunken in his grandson's eyes were; the adolescent's body barely relaxed even as he exhaled. Jotaro let his head fall back down as he looked up at his grandfather and locked eyes with him. "What?" he asked glibly.

"Nothing," murmured the old man, turning his gaze back to the bottles on the shelf, "just…nothing."

"Right," mumbled Jotaro, pushing himself to his feet. He shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked out from behind the bar. "I'm gonna look in that closet," decided the thug, jerking his thumb to the shut door across from the counter.

"Don't get into any trouble!" Mr. Joestar called after his grandson as he walked away.

"Eat a dick, old man," the delinquent shot back with surprisingly little animosity.

Joseph snickered as the door to the closet opened and shut. Turning back to the counter, the old man rested his arms on the table as he debated walking over to the closet and helping his grandson examine the small room, even if it was more of a one-person job. A sudden wave of drowsiness washed over Mr. Joestar. His eyelids felt as heavy as sandbags and his mind felt cloudy, as his head fell onto his arms. He fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

"Whoa, this place is bumpin'!" exclaimed Suki, looking about the bustling, closed-off room with wide eyes. Colorful lights danced about the darkened floor, walls, and ceiling as music with a heavy bass tempo pulsated through the masses of people hopping and stepping to the beat. Music videos, which were playing on the two large monitors that hung from one wall, only added to the pure sound bouncing violently off the walls. "It's so busy!" _Minaj would _love _this place, _she mused.

"Suki, what did you say?" Abdul inquired near inaudibly as he raised a hand to his ear.

"She said it's busy!" Polnareff repeated at a barely audible volume.

"Yeah! Let's get looking!" suggested Suki, stepping further into the room.

"What?!" asked Abdul, looking about with wide eyes.

"Come on!" coaxed Polnareff, grasping the rigid fortune teller's forearm and leading him after the girl.

Slowly but surely making out shapes in the brief light she was offered, Suki noticed a pair of circular stages in the middle of the room connected by a thin walkway. Looking closer, she saw two women, each standing in the center of each circle, twisting and spinning about a tall metal pole that extended from each stage to the ceiling. The girl blinked several times. She didn't quite believe what she was seeing, as the women on the stages danced in a much lewder manner than she had expected. Covering her mouth with a hand as she felt her face heat up, she turned to the two men following her as they edged their way through the crowd.

"A-Actually, I don't think any enemy Stand users would be hiding in here, guys! Let's look somewhere else!" dismissed the girl, desperately trying to turn her friends around and shove them back the way they had come.

"What? What's the problem? It's a weird setup, yeah, but—" Polnareff retorted as he turned back to the girl with a smirk, "wait, don't tell me you've never even seen a pole dancer before? Not even on some of those shows your mom watched?"

Suki recalled what she had seen, not on the small screen her mother owned, but in one of the books she had borrowed from the _Roundabout_. Shaking her head, the girl continued to push the two men towards the exit. "It doesn't matter if I've seen one or not," Suki shot back. "Let's just go!"

"Why are we leaving?!" Abdul shouted over the noise while glancing uncertainly behind him.

"Don't look, Abdul! It's fine, there's nothing here!" the girl assured. She stumbled slightly as she felt something heavy fall on her back. She whipped around to see a man about her height had nearly bowled her over.

"Ah, sorry, sorry," he slurred. The man blinked a few times as he looked at the girl. "Hey, you're kinda cute…Wanna dance?"

"Sorry, but I don't want to! Thank you for the offer, though!" she responded in as polite a tone as she could without it sounding like she was screaming at him.

"Aw, come on, baby, it'll be fun!" cooed the man, approaching the girl as she shrunk back slightly. Polnareff and Abdul immediately blocked the advancing man's path.

"I believe she told you, 'no,'" stated Abdul, fixing the man with a fiery glare.

"Buzz off, creep," ordered Polnareff, staring icy daggers at the offender.

With that, the two men nodded to each other and picked the girl up by each of her arms. They lifted her easily and walked out of the club. Suki's cheeks heated up as the two men carried her out of the room.

As soon as the doors shut, muffling the foundation-shaking noise of the club, the two men set the slightly embarrassed girl down. Abdul exhaled a sigh as Polnareff chuckled. "Alright, where should we look next?" the Frenchman asked.

"W-Well, the hall loops around the building, right? Why don't we keep going in the same direction we started out going in?" suggested Suki, wiping away her fluster.

"As long as we don't come across any more places like that," Abdul huffed.

"Who knows? Maybe we'll finally find a place that _doesn't _smell like whatever fragrance Talia has floating around here," Polnareff wondered aloud.

"I must admit, it _is _cloyingly sweet…" the fortune teller conceded.

_Fragrance…? _Suki thought before shaking her head.

The trio then turned and began to continue down the hall. After strolling along for a minute or so, Suki vaguely noticed a woman with a shock of boyishly cut pink hair pass by them. She didn't take full notice until she heard the woman speak behind her.

"Kiki?"

Suki slowly turned around to face the source of the voice she recognized. The somewhat-older, slightly-more-overweight, pink-haired woman wore a denim vest and grey tank top, accented by a pair of black, ripped denim shorts with a leather studded belt hanging at a loose diagonal through the loops. She wore a black spiked collar around her neck and a dark red head scarf through her short locks with a pair of white feathers attached. Her dark primrose-painted lips quirked up as she looked at the brunette in front of her. Suki blinked a few times before inquiring, "M-Minaj?"

The pink-haired girl rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Suki. The collared girl spun her around without letting go, nearly smacking her friend's face with the misshapen sword bag on her back, as she laughed happily. "Oh my God, you're actually here! This is so nuts!" she enthused as she finally put Suki down.

"Minaj, it really _is_ you!" cheered Suki, embracing the woman back. Pulling back from the hug, she looked her friend up and down. "What the hell happened to you? What are you doing _here_?"

"I could ask you the same question!" Minaj exclaimed.

"I asked first!" laughed Suki, gesturing to the woman to follow her. "Come on, walk with me. Talk with me. I gotta catch up with Polnareff and Abdul."

"Okay, well," Minaj started while falling into step with Suki, "I kinda had to change up my identity since I'm on the run from the law."

The brunette made a choking sound. "You're…You're joking, right?" Suki asked.

"Nope," Minaj denied with a grin, "but Houdini told me that no one would find me if I had a drastic makeover, so-"

"Houdini?"

"Uhh…blond guy, really cute, always grinning…" Minaj described.

"Wait…_Whit _got you in on this?!" the brunette cried.

"He actually tried to tell me, 'no,' but I couldn't just stay away knowing my soul sister was in danger!" explained Minaj, placing her hands over her heart with a pained expression. "A lot of stuff happened with that guy. He even helped me change my name, which is much less expensive to do than I thought it would be. So, it's not Minaj Goh anymore," announced the boisterous woman, striking a pop idol pose, "Call me Mina Nocturn!"

"You barely changed your first name," Suki muttered, "And why choose nocturne as a last name?"

"Hey, my name, my choice!" the pink-haired woman rebuked with a shrug.

"Mina, it is, then," Suki agreed.

"I'm willing to answer any and all questions later, but for the time being, I wanna know what's up with you! You are," Mina made a show of looking Suki up and down, "looking distinctly not boyish!"

"Well, uh," started the girl, scratching her head, "it's a long story for me, too, but, basically I'm trying to be more of an adult now."

"An _adult_, huh?" Mina asked with a hand on her chin. "So, does that mean you know about," she cleared her throat, "the _sex_?"

"H-Hey!" Suki stammered as her face flushed. "D-Don't catch me off guard like that! Why'd you have to ask the question like _that_?"

"So you _do _know, clever little _sneak_!" she teased with a grin. "Aw God, that makes me so fucking happy, though, you have no idea! The spell has been broken! Thank heavenly Jesus!"

"Spell? What are you…?" the brunette asked while tilting her head.

"Well, I mean, you must've realized by now, right?" Mina's voice lowered uncharacteristically as she spoke. "With…With your brother?"

"Why don't we talk about _that _later, too?" Suki suggested.

"Yeah, sounds good," sighed Mina, her body immediately relaxing. "Just say the word when it's okay to chat about it, alrighty?" Suki nodded. Then she sneezed. Mina covered her face with her arms. "Agh, I said _say _it, not _spray _it!"

"Sorry," Suki apologized with a sniffle. "Allergies."

"Well, let's hope you didn't actually get sick. Stress'll do that," Mina cautioned.

"Anyway, I guess I have a new identity, too. You can call me 'Suki,'" she shared with a smile.

"I _can_, but I've been calling you 'Kiki' for so long, though, and it's already a pretty cute nickname…It might take a bit." The pink-haired girl grinned cheekily.

"Join the club, _Minaj_," Suki replied with purpose while ignoring Mina's exaggerated pout.

"So, wait, you never told me what you were doing here!" Mina pointed out.

"Ah, well, we're staying the night here, since there isn't really anyplace else to stay…" Suki trailed off as she noticed Mina had stopped behind her. The brunette's friend's eyes were wide. "What's…What's the matter?"

"No, no, that wasn't the _plan_," denied Mina, locking panic-induced, brownish-red eyes with Suki's. "Houdini told me to wait in this area. I was supposed to catch up with you guys after you had passed this place. I've been hanging around here longer than I should have been though, I shouldn't have decided to stay in this building in the first place: my fucking anklet got stolen, I had an absolutely _horrid _night with this one dude, and I just…" She took a breath. "You can't…you can't stay here."

"What?" Suki asked. "The guy who recommended it seemed trustworthy enough, and he only had nice things to say about this place."

"It's..." Mina shook her head, "It's the worst possible place for someone like you, Kiki. Worst for you and the guys you're partied up with."

Suki swallowed. "We'd better find the others, then," Suki advised. Mina nodded as she picked up the pace to follow Suki's firm stride. "Where the fuck _are _they?" the brunette wondered aloud as they continued to walk down the hall. "We should've run into them by now, right? We definitely should've-!"

A tide of dizziness suddenly crashed over Suki, as she stumbled back into Mina. Her body felt submerged as the pink-haired woman wrapped her arms around her and kept walking down the hall.

"I won't…let them…take you…" drawled Mina, staggering slowly for a few moments before falling to her knees. She held her near-unconscious friend close as she felt herself drift into a drowsy state. "Shit…fucking…dammit…"

* * *

"Polnareff, I think we should wait here for Suki to catch up with us," Abdul suggested.

"Yeah, good idea," the Frenchman agreed. "Give her a bit of privacy with that friend of hers, if she needs it," At that moment, Polnareff felt something throb in his skull, as he leaned against the wall with a grimace.

Abdul turned back to see the silver-haired man slowly slink to the floor with a weak expression. His eyes widened. "Polnareff! Are you alright?" asked the concerned fortune teller, dropping to one knee next to his companion. He placed a hand on Polnareff's forehead, his expression growing confused as he felt no sign of a fever.

"I-I'm fine," the Frenchman replied groggily. "I just…feel really…" He yawned. "Really _tired _all of a sudden…"

Abdul rose to his feet and began to walk back the way they came. "I'm going to go get Suki and her friend. The more people we have, the-!" All of the energy that allowed the fortune teller to stay on his feet suddenly drained from him, as he dropped to his knees. "What…What is going _on_…?" he wondered. Part of the wall on his left began to fold toward him, blocking the corridor he and Polnareff were in from view. In his weary state, Abdul managed to look up and see Suki and the woman with pink hair walk by just as the space between the corner of the hall and the side of the panel nearly narrowed completely. He reached out to try and get the attention of one of them before falling to the ground completely.

* * *

_Where the fuck did the old man go, _wondered Jotaro, striding back down the hallway he and his grandfather had come from and casting his gaze about. _Wish he'd said something before he disappeared on me._

As the man turned the corner, he ran right into a much smaller person, who squeaked as she hit the floor. "Hey, watch where you're-!" Taking a closer look at the girl, he saw that he had nearly run over Suki, who stared up at him with wide eyes. "You okay?" he asked. He held a hand out to help her up.

"Yep, I'm fine!" she assured with a grin. Even as she reached her feet, she didn't let go of his hand as she began to lead him down the hallway she had come from. "The others are waiting in the club. Let's go!" Jotaro narrowed his eyes as he stared at the girl's tight grip on his hand. He stayed silent as he allowed her to lead him down the long hallway past the lobby.

The club was not nearly as bustling as the delinquent had expected, with a number of couples gently swaying to a soft, slow song that played over the speakers. Even in the darkened room, Suki traversed the floors like it was something she had done dozens of times, as she led Jotaro over to an abandoned table pushed farther away from the stage set up in the middle of the room. Finally letting go of his hand, the girl sat down in one of the two chairs at the table and patted the seat of the other. With a sigh, the thug lowered himself onto the chair and gazed out over the small crowd of people.

"So, where are the others?" he muttered in Japanese.

"Well, I told them to meet us here," she responded in kind without skipping a beat. "They should be around here somewhere." Looking up at him from under her lashes, the girl turned her gaze to the delinquent. "Uhm, can I ask you something, before they show up?" Jotaro sighed and leaned back in his chair. Suki continued on, "How much do you really care about me? Be honest with me." The man looked over to her with a raised eyebrow. "Look, I know you, and I want to know. What could a little girl like me…" She rested her arms on the table, propping her chin up with a hand as her eyes fell half-lidded, "mean to a _man _like you?"

Jotaro stood up brusquely from the table and glared at the girl. She met his eyes head on as he spoke. "Someone like _you _doesn't have the right to hear what's only meant for her ears. So, you can fuck right off," He countered as he turned on his heel, beginning to walk away, "bitch."

The girl slowly stood up. "I'm afraid that's not an option anymore," murmured the brunette, her voice deepening as she sauntered behind him. The click of her heels was inaudible, even with the quieter music. Her anklet glittered in the club's lights as she spoke sultrily. "We're long past the point of you telling me to leave. I couldn't go even if I wanted to…"

With surprising speed and strength, she caught up to the departing man before he could get to the doors. She snatched his wrist in her long fingers and turned him towards her with a firm yank. It only took two pulls that he had been unprepared for before she brought him down to her level and smashed her lips to his. She shoved her tongue into his mouth, along with something distinctly pill-shaped. The disguise faded right before Jotaro's shocked eyes, leaving only the woman who had met the group at the reception desk, Talia Swift. Acting on instinct, the delinquent reeled his arm back and landed a punch square in her stomach. As the wind was knocked out of the woman, Jotaro shoved her away and took a few steps back. He spat out what he could of what she had slipped past his lips and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

"What the hell are you _doing_?" he demanded. Before he could wait for a response from her, he felt a rush of dizziness that wrapped around him and pulled his body to the floor. He could barely form words as he glared up at the woman standing over him with a sly smirk. "Star…Platinum!" he called out. Glancing behind him, he saw his Stand was nowhere to be seen.

Talia crouched down to his level and trailed a hand down his cheek. She propped his chin up with a manicured finger as she stared into his confused blue eyes. "I'm not doing anything or _anyone_ yet…" she drawled as she leaned closer to him. Unconsciousness threatened to overtake him as she guaranteed, "but, very soon, I will be…"

* * *

Suki slowly wrenched her eyes open. A murky haze made her feel groggy as she lay on what felt like a gigantic pillow.

_This place is… _she thought. Suki let her eyes lazily drift around her peripherals as she refused to budge. _It looks like a hotel room… _The girl blinked languidly. _My head feels foggy… I don't remember why I'm here… What was I…? _Suki tried to shake the sleep from her head. She felt like she was moving through thick molasses as she brought a hand up to her head. _It feels like I had something important to do…? I hear the shower running in the bathroom…_

_Embrace your desire…_a strange voice rang inside her head. Suki found she recognized the voice but couldn't place it. _I am the voice of your inner self… Enjoy the moment… That which cannot be felt is merely a dream… The present is all we have…_

_...That's not true… _Suki replied inwardly as she lethargically pushed herself up to one elbow and blinked harshly.

_The future is but a fantasy, memory a fabrication… _the voice continued. Suki had heard this woman's voice recently, but her mind still swam. _Let your desire free you from your shackles..._

_I can't…give in… _Suki thought back.

_Pleasure is what you truly want. You stand before the doorway to bliss. You cannot deny your instincts… Embrace your desire…_

Suki shook her head. _Not now… _She felt her mind getting clearer. Suki found she had the strength to sit up fully on what she now saw to be a king-sized bed with soft red sheets and rose-colored pillows. _I think…I've regained control of my thoughts… _The sound of the squeak of a faucet reached the girl's ears, causing her to look up. _The shower in the bathroom has been turned off…!? Someone's coming out!_

Sure enough, a larger person cloaked in steam walked out with a towel wrapped about his hips. "Hey, it's your turn next…" a rough, masculine voice announced. Squinting into the steam, Suki was certain the figure belonged to Jotaro: short hair, muscular build, and all. She rubbed at her eyes and blinked several times before she saw who was actually standing there. Joseph blinked harshly. The old man's artificial hand reached up to hold his head before he looked towards the bed again. "…? Whoa!" he exclaimed. The elder looked frantically about the room. "Wh-What the hell!? What's going on here!?"

"P-Put your clothes on, Mr. Joestar," pleaded Suki, hiding her eyes with a hand.

"Y-Yeah, you're absolutely right!" Joseph agreed before rushing back into the bathroom and slamming the door behind him.

_It seems like his mind was clouded, too, _Suki thought with a sigh. _I should find my clothes. _Pulling the top sheet around her body, the girl began to search the room for what she had been wearing that day. She looked through all the drawers of the dresser pushed against the wall, under the rest of the sheets and pillows, and even under the bed. No luck. The phone on the bedside table began to ring, startling Suki as she looked to the noisy appliance. _Who…? _She picked up the receiver after a moment's hesitation. "Hello?"

"Ah, Miss Kanao. I certainly expected you to be more occupied, considering the circumstances under which you are currently operating," a familiar voice remarked.

Suki sighed, "Whit, where the hell are you calling me from?"

"At this moment in time, I am flying a plane to your location," the blond man responded. "We should not be more than- I am sorry?" He directed his voice away from the phone as he spoke to someone else. "She is currently speaking with me, yes. You shall be able to see her soon. Yes, please contain your excitement, small child. In any event," he began as he turned his voice back to the receiver, "hopefully we should be able to reconvene within two or three hours' time?"

"…Okay, so you are two or three hours away…In a _plane_…Calling me on a _landline_?"

"Your statement is approximately sixty-seven percent correct, which would not be a passing grade, unfortunately," Whit clarified. "I must question, Miss Kanao, is Mr. Kujo with you at the moment?"

"N-No…he isn't," answered the brunette, feeling a pang in her chest as she spoke.

She heard a sigh on the other line. "I had been afraid of such a predicament. I implore, please forgive my indiscretion from a few moments prior. Might I ask, who is at your side at the moment?"

"Mr. Joestar is," Suki answered.

"Suki, who are you talking to?" Joseph wondered as he stepped out of the bathroom. Thankfully, he was now completely clothed in what he had been wearing that day.

"Whit's on the line," Suki shared.

The old man raised an eyebrow. "How?" he inquired. Suki shrugged.

"Miss Kanao, could you please allow me to speak with Mr. Joestar?" Whit requested.

The brunette gave Mr. Joestar a look before offering him the phone. "You wanted to speak with me?" the old man asked as he brought the receiver to his ear. As Suki turned to look in the bathroom for something to wear, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to face Mr. Joestar to see him offering her a white bathrobe he had found. He was deliberately averting his gaze. The girl gave a sincere smile as she took the article of clothing, walked over to the bathroom, and shut the door behind her. As she listened to Mr. Joestar's voice from the other room, she let the sheet slip from her shoulders and pulled the bathrobe over her arms. She tied the silk belt in a double knot.

_It's a little big for me, but it'll do for now, _she thought. Catching her reflection in the mirror, she ran a hand through her hair, before realizing that something was missing. _The ribbon… Is it in my bag…? _Suki looked around the small room and spotted her satchel in the corner. Rushing over to it, she picked it up and began to rifle through it. She breathed a sigh of relief as her hand found the thin strip of fabric. The girl continued to look through her bag as she tied the star-patterned ribbon around her ponytail. _Almost everything is there… My notebook, pen, canteen, and even my necklace are untouched, as is the tape deck and earbud set Minaj…Mina lent me, and the note and gas mask Whit gave me. The journal page I found in that meteorite book is still here, too, but…_She pursed her lips. _…some jerk absconded with my old outfit and my porn. Great._

With a sigh, Suki removed the necklace from her satchel and closed her bag. After donning her amulet, she walked back into the bedroom, just as Mr. Joestar hung up the phone. "I've got a plan, but we need to find the enemy Stand user, first," the old man explained.

Suki gave a small nod. "Let's get going, then," she proposed, walking towards the door leading out of the room. Joseph followed close behind as she stepped out.

The door led out to a spacious room that was completely abandoned. The warm colors from the lobby persisted, but, other than a few stray chairs and decorative tables pushed against the far wall, there was no furniture to speak of. The lack of windows made the area feel incredibly stifling and the bland paintings hanging from the walls did nothing to lessen the passive-aggressive atmosphere.

"I've got a feeling that I know who the enemy Stand user is," Joseph started,

"Do tell," encouraged Suki, casting her gaze about the room for the way to the lower floor.

"Did you hear a voice in your mind before I walked out of the bathroom?" Suki nodded as the two walked around the room. "That was the voice of the woman we met when we walked in. Talia Swift, I think her name was. Considering how she acted after she saw us, I wouldn't be surprised," concluded Joseph, stepping over to one of the paintings hanging from the wall. He pushed against the frame and found it wouldn't budge.

"Yeah, that makes sense," the girl agreed. "Uhm, would it be weird to think that maybe the hotel is the Stand?"

"Well, we've had a boat that was a Stand and a car that was a Stand. I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to see a building that's a Stand," Mr. Joestar surmised while walking over to another painting on the wall and pressing his hand against it. His eyes lit up as a small clicking noise was heard as the picture moved diagonally. At that moment, an almost invisible panel of the wall slid aside to reveal a dark staircase going down. Joseph smirked before turning back to the girl. "What led you to that conclusion?"

"Whit gave me a bit of a hint. I asked if he was two or three hours away on a plane calling my landline, and he said I was 'sixty-seven percent correct,'" Suki explained as they began to descend the dimly lit staircase to the lower floor. "That means, out of the three things I said, two were right and one was wrong. It isn't rocket science, but considering he already told me that he was on a plane and that he was about two or three hours away, that only left what I had made an assumption about: that he was calling a _landline_. Meaning, that phone he called us on, however he managed to contact us, isn't a normal phone. If the hotel is the Stand, it would make sense for the phone to just be part of the Stand."

"It would certainly explain the lack of staff manning this place, too," Mr. Joestar added.

The pair reached the landing and turned the corner to the second set of steps. "But, then, what the hell are those other people doing here…?" Suki wondered. Upon receiving a questioning look from the old man, she explained further. "When Abdul, Polnareff, and I checked out the club, there were a _bunch _of people inside. It seemed like…Like they were all having a good time, but…Why are they here?"

"The helmsman said he had been here seven separate times, so this must be a popular place to stay," Joseph recalled.

"Okay...but, why though?"

Before the old man could answer, a loud crash sounded right in front of the duo, past the panel leading to the next room. Through the wall, Suki could hear a distant voice shouting, "Eat my fist, you bitch!" before she heard the sound of a rough impact.

"That was Mina!" exclaimed Suki, rushing toward the panel.

Mr. Joestar easily caught up with her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hang on, hang on. You're not going to be able to help anyone if you rush in without thinking."

"But, she's…" Suki took a deep breath. "No, you're right. I've gotta be careful."

With that, Suki slowly opened the panel. She slowly edged it outward. As she and Mr. Joestar peeked into the room that was structurally identical to the previous room, they saw that a swath of the room was covered in naked, unconscious bodies, male and female alike. Looking further into the room, they saw a woman with a pink, boyish haircut and a black bathrobe repeatedly slamming a person's head into the wall. Seemingly only now noticing that the man she was brutalizing had been knocked unconscious, Mina let him drop to the floor before turning to assess the damages. As her eyes landed on Suki, they glinted. She dashed forward before the girl could voice a retort and grabbed the brunette by the arm to drag her behind her body. Mina glared up at the old man and snarled, "I swear to God, if you harmed so much as a hair on her cute little head, I'm gonna—"

"Mina, Mina, Mina, hold on," Suki piped up while stepping between Mina and Joseph, "he's a friend. Don't you remember meeting him back in Singapore?"

Mina quirked an eyebrow before standing up straighter. She brought a hand to her chin as her gaze flicked up and down. "Now that I think on it, he looks _kinda _familiar. I never went toe-to-toe with him, so I don't remember him as well as the others," she vaguely recollected as she put her hands on her hips, "and you _did _have the decency to put some goddamn clothes on and make sure Suki got dressed, so you're already better than I first thought."

"Thank you?" Mr. Joestar responded uncertainly. "Minaj, right?"

"It's Mina, now, actually, and don't you go forgetting it!" the pink-haired woman corrected with a wink.

"Alright, Mina," the old man began as he put his hand out. "Joseph Joestar. Glad to see you're alright."

Mina smirked as she shook his hand. "So, you guys took the stairs to get here, right?" Mina asked. Mr. Joestar nodded as the woman pulled her hand back. "I've tried the stairs a dozen times but have never gotten anywhere. Even weirder," she mused as she began to examine the walls and floor of the room. "The people staying here are going completely berserk. That hasn't happened the past couple of nights."

Suki and Joseph exchanged a look. "What _has _happened the past couple of nights?" the brunette pressed.

"The first night, I didn't get the chance to observe the goings-on too much, since I was a little…_preoccupied_ with someone else," Mina explained with a wince. "But, but, the second night, that's when I got to see how this place worked. It's got a fucking schedule and everything, and I do mean _fucking _schedule. People stay quiet, probably sleeping in their rooms like a cult. Then, at midnight sharp, all hell breaks loose. This whole building becomes the site of the biggest orgy on the continent. People swap rooms, come out into the open, use whatever's lying around…it's goddamn nuts."

"What time is it now?" Mr. Joestar asked.

"There was a clock in one of the rooms I peeked into… It was about eleven-thirty, and I think it's been about five minutes since then," Mina shared.

Suki and Joseph both breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God. Nothing happened," the brunette breathed. She turned to the old man with a sheepish grin, "no offense, Mr. Joestar."

"No, I'm with you," he responded.

Mina looked between the two with a slightly confused expression. "What? What's wrong?" the boisterous gal wondered.

Joseph sighed and turned to check the wall paintings for any similarly placed switches. Suki leaned closer to the pink-haired woman and lowered her voice as she answered, "You do know if the clock struck twelve—"

"Nah, nah, I'm playing that field," interrupted Mina, lowering her voice only slightly. "He seems like a nice enough guy. What, you not into the older crowd or something?"

"Mina!" Suki scolded. "There is _so _much wrong with that, but the first thing you need to know is he's _married_!"

"Aaaaaaand that's a concern because...?" the pink-haired woman murmured.

Suki's mouth fell slightly agape. "He's, uh, also sixty-seven."

"Whaaaat?" Mina looked over and distinctly gave the man a languid once-over. "Nah, man. You can't fool me. I at least _passed_ Biology."

Suki was dead silent.

"You're _not _lying to me," Mina stated as she looked back to Mr. Joestar. "I mean, I guess I could wait a _couple _of years."

"_Mina_!" Suki hissed.

"Relax, relax, I'm _just _kidding," the pink-haired woman assured half-heartedly with a mischievous, hissing laugh.

The girl could only stare dumbfoundedly after her friend as she walked up to and ran her hands over one of the tables pushed against the wall. A small clicking noise reached the ears of the group and Mina grinned. Looking to her left, they saw a panel slide aside in the wall, revealing a dingy-looking elevator. Gesturing to it as she looked to Suki and Joseph, Mina began to enter the contraption. The duo followed in after her, and, as soon as they passed the threshold, the metal doors slid closed behind them.

"Alrighty, tighty…" rallied Mina, glancing about the ceiling of the elevator and quickly spotting a hole to the elevator shaft she could easily pass through. "I might be trippin', but it seems...higher than it was last night. It's about two meters up, I'd say. Hey, Kiki, gimme a boost, will ya?" She turned back to Suki and Mr. Joestar, her eyes lighting up as she apparently realized something. "Oh, right, I forgot you aren't the biggest person in the room," she noticed with a smirk. Suki pouted as Mina directed her attention to Joseph. "Mind helping?"

"Oh, you're gonna hop up on my shoulders or something? Then, you're right, it _would_ be easier if you asked a taller person for help," Mr. Joestar rationalized.

"Well, you're…a _little_ tall for me to just jump up on your shoulders," claimed Mina, pointing to a spot on the floor close to the hole. She looked Mr. Joestar dead in the eyes as she commanded, "On your knees."

The old man was taken aback. "…What?" he asked.

Suki sighed.

"Hey, I'm not climbing, either. I'll get up on your shoulders, so kneel," Mina clarified.

Mr. Joestar rolled his eyes and stepped to the spot Mina had pointed out. He lowered to his knees and made eye contact with the woman, raising an eyebrow. "This what you wanted?"

"Heh. Thanks. A little step up is just what I needed," the collared woman replied with a coy smile as she took a few steps back in what little space she had available.

"What? Wait, what are you going to do?" Joseph asked.

Without a word, Mina dashed forward and leapt up. She vaulted off the old man's shoulders and disappearing through the hole in the ceiling.

"How in the hell?" Mr. Joestar wondered.

Mina stuck her head back through the hole with an impish grin. "I didn't skip leg day, Gramps," she explained. She then vanished through the hole again. Several clanking noises could be heard from above the elevator.

"'Gramps'?" wondered Joseph, looking toward Suki quizzically. The brunette shrugged with a sheepish smile.

The elevator suddenly lurched after a particularly loud _bang_. Mina jumped back down the hole as the contraption began to descend. She smiled. "Something I found out last night, too: the only way to get anywhere in this building is via the elevator. The stairs kinda just loop in on themselves after a while," the woman explained.

As the elevator slowly lowered, Suki closed her eyes. _Please be okay, _she prayed, Please _be okay…_

* * *

Talia tilted her head as she stared at the pocket watch in her hand. "It's midnight. Hope my lovely patrons won't mind too much if I take the heat off them for a spell. After all, I deserve to give myself something I want every once in a while, right?" lilted the woman, pocketing the small clock and turning to her red-faced captive, who was hand-cuffed to a bench in the muggy room. He refused to meet her eyes; he kept his head lowered as he seemed to be struggling to steady his breathing.

The woman crouched down next to him and slowly reached towards his cap. Her fingers nearly curled around the brim before, in the blink of an eye, her captive snapped his head up and bit down on two of her fingers. Talia yelped in pain as she heard a small crunching sound. She finally managed to rip her hand away from his grasp after a few moments. Her eyes flashed before she smirked. "Naughty… Well, I guess you'd still be a little testy. It'll still be a little while before the pheromones fully do away with your restraint," noted Talia, licking the blood from her fingers. "Won't be long before you'll be throwing your clothes off yourself."

Her prisoner turned his head away from the enemy Stand user.

Talia lowered from her crouch to a kneel. She placed a hand on the side of the delinquent's face and turned him back towards her. "Come on, honey, what could that brat possibly have that I don't?" she wondered. "I bet she doesn't even know how to give you the lip service you want."

"You'd be wrong," he denied. "She knows a hell of a lot more than you do, and she's not even a third of how old _you_ are."

Talia reeled her hand back and slapped the thug across the cheek; his head snapped to the side from the impact. His cheek glowed an even angrier shade of scarlet from the attack, but the man refused to give the woman the satisfaction of acknowledging her. The woman stood up and shook out her hand with her face twisted in rage. "I'm going to pretend you _didn't _just say that," she scolded in a clipped manner. Her expression then softened into a coy smile. "How could I not forgive that adorable face of yours… I wonder if your Stand is just as cute…" The woman then reached into her pocket and pulled out two pill bottles, one blue and one pink. A single pill clicked against the sides of the blue container as she turned it over in her hands. Talia narrowed her eyes. "Best not chance it…" muttered the hotel-owner, pocketing both bottles. The woman turned back to Jotaro with a sneer. _Well, they do say patience is a virtue… All will eventually come to their senses, thanks to my Hathor…_

* * *

The elevator dinged as the group reached the bottom floor. Once the doors slid open, the trio stepped out into the lobby. Mina took the lead and turned around to face Joseph and Suki. "Alright, so what is _le plan_?" she demanded.

"We need to find the enemy Stand user," explained Mr. Joestar, bringing a hand to his chin. "I could easily locate her if I had access to a television or some sort of monitor.

"Well, there's a monitor in the club we checked," Suki suggested. "Will that work?"

"Perfect! Let's go there!" Joseph enthused.

As the group reached the doors leading into the previously loud room, Suki stopped her hand just shy of reaching the door handle. Glancing back to the other two, she saw Mina roll her eyes and approach the entrance. Her slender fingers wrapped around the handle easily. The boisterous gal gave a reassuring look to the younger girl before yanking on the door and leading Suki and Joseph inside.

Two densely populated masses of people were standing bare in front of each of the monitors in the warmly lit black box. From the angle the trio had entered from, the images on the screens were difficult to parse, but the audio from them reached their ears all too easily.

Suki covered her face with one hand as she felt her cheeks heat up. "Sh-She sure caters to all kinds, doesn't she?" she mused embarrassedly.

"The controls for the monitors are probably up there," predicted Joseph, pointing at a catwalk hanging above the center set of stages. Suki narrowed her eyes as she stared at it before turning her attention back to the old man. "And, if I were to hazard a guess, the way up there would be…" His eyes landed on a retractable ladder bolted to the wall near the raised walkway. He smirked, summoned Hermit Purple, and launched it at the bottom rungs of the ladder. Once the thorny vines were secured, he yanked down on them. The ladder refused to budge. Huffing a sigh, he muttered, "Must be rusted or something…" The sprightly elder turned back to the girls. "You two wait here for just a second." With that, the man began to pull himself carefully up the wall.

Suki turned to her friend to see the pink-haired woman staring off at some point in the right corner of the room near the door. She was slightly turned away from the girl. "Hey, Mina," the brunette called. Mina turned fully to Suki upon hearing her name, "you said you got to look around the second night, right? What happened to that other person you said you were with?"

Mina cast her eyes away as she responded, "He said something about a 'round-up'?" She blinked slowly as Suki tilted her head. "No, no, 'rounding people up'! He said he had to leave to do that. I'm glad for it, though," grumbled the begrudged woman, sticking her tongue out in disgust. "Never wanna see him or his nasty-ass dick ever again. Why the absolute fuck did I ever think…" She groaned, cutting herself off.

"Did you know this guy before?" the brunette asked.

"Less than barely," Mina scoffed. "Plus, it was before my makeover, so I wouldn't be surprised if the prick didn't even remember me. Not that I give two flying, fruity fucks."

"That reminds me," Suki queried quietly, "Mina, are you still twenty-one?"

"That's a weird question," noted the pink-haired woman, scratching her head through her headband. "I should be, but I feel like I was looking at a twenty-four-year old when I last looked in the mirror…And I guess…I feel older?" She shook her head. "Why do you ask?"

"That anklet you had…Whit told me about it. It gave you Stand power, but one of the possible side effects is rapid aging…" the girl shared.

Mina sighed, "Yeah, yeah. Houdini helped me figure that out. Suffice to say, I'm even more dead-set on taking that bastard Dio out for encroaching on my dainty twenties."

Suki was taken aback. "Wait, what are you-"

"Hey, you two!" Joseph called, causing the girls to look up at him. "That ladder is a no-go, so I'll just bring you up here with my Stand!" Hermit Purple descended from his hands to the ground as he spoke.

Suki grasped the vines closest to her before she realized something. She began to instruct, "Hey, Mina, grab—" She turned to her friend but lost her train of thought upon seeing Mina already clutching the other set of thorny ropes.

The pink-haired woman turned to Suki with a raised eyebrow. "What? You offering to carry me?" she teased with a smirk. "That's real sweet, but I think you've got the roles reversed."

Suki blinked before shaking her head. _Maybe the Stand Transplant rubbed off on her? _she wondered as she allowed herself to be pulled up to the catwalk.

After climbing safely up to the metal floor, barricaded on both sides by concerningly loose metallic pipe-railings, Mr. Joestar led the girls to the north end of the catwalk, to a control panel covered in buttons, dials, and flashing lights that the other two could barely make heads or tails of. "Using Hermit Purple here will let us see the location of the enemy Stand user on those two monitors, but…" he trailed off as he spared a glance towards the claustrophobically-gathered people below, "I can't imagine that they would react very well if their regularly-scheduled programming were to be cut."

"Sounds like you need a distraction," Mina suggested with a grin. She then turned to Suki. "Hey, you still got that tape deck I lent you?"

"Huh? Yeah, sure," concurred the brunette, reaching into her satchel and pulling the requested item out, "but, what are you going to…?" she asked while handing the device to Mina.

The pink-haired woman winked. "I'mma give them a little bit of a show," she shared suggestively. "That should keep them busy for as long as you two need."

Suki's eyes widened. "What? You don't have to do that!" the girl dismissed in a fluster. "That's…It's…"

"'It's' what?" Mina asked while keeping her smile.

"…Em-embarrassing," the brunette murmured. "I wouldn't ask anyone to do that, unless they actually wanted to."

"Well, I guess today's your lucky day! I'm going out there to have fun! I'mma fuckin' do it!" Mina cheered before walking over to one of the poles extending from the stage to the ceiling. She reached up to her head scarf and pulled it outward slightly. She removed a small cassette that had been hidden in the red fabric. The tape was labeled with a small strip of tape that had pink hearts dotted across it. She opened the tape deck and removed the cassette that had previously occupied the machine and replaced it with the heart-patterned cassette. The woman tossed the old cassette to Suki, who caught it, before gripping the handle of the tape deck in her teeth and sliding down the pole.

"W-Wait, Mina—!" Suki called as she darted to the railing. She breathed a sigh as her friend blatantly ignored her gift-wrapped excuses.

As the woman reached the stage, Joseph turned the dial labeled "VOL" to a lower setting before turning his full attention to the control panel. He summoned Hermit Purple once more and allowed the vines to weave through and around the apparatus. The picture on the monitors fizzled into static. Just as the audience voiced their distress, another song began to play through a lower-quality sound system. All eyes turned to the source of the noise to see Mina. Her robe having fell open as she began to dance to the sultry tones of the music filling everyone's ears.

Fire burning from her eyes to the tips of her fingers to the soles of her feet, the woman swayed about the stage and swung herself around the poles as she never stayed in one spot for long. It was almost as if she, too, had submitted to the haze of brainwashing arousal that had forced the many residents of the hotel into a heated submission. She danced with the rod and eyed it up. She rolled about the stage floor in a manner that anyone would have a hard time misinterpreting, but she never failed to turn her sensual gaze back to the rapt audience. The woman never once tried to hide behind closed eyelids. Without even making contact with the areas made for the money shot for the audience, her moves were sex for the eyes. But, more than that, her enthusiasm and confidence seemed to roll palpably off of her with every minute gesture, transmitting loud and clear to the people watching as they cheered and hollered.

Suki cast her gaze from the display with a shake of her head. Turning back to Mr. Joestar, she saw he was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn't even take notice of the lustful performance happening below. He only concentrated on the control panel and monitors as he darted his eyes back and forth. A picture began to form dully on the monitor, but it wasn't clear enough for either of the two to parse through what was what in the moving picture. "There's quite a bit of interference," muttered the old man, ignoring the sweat dripping down his neck. "I'm trying to break through it, but it'll take time. It keeps building back up even after a second of taking my focus off of it."

"Agh!" Suki turned to the source of the cry to see Mina had stumbled and fallen to her knees on the stage as she held her head in her hands.

"Mina…?" Suki wondered aloud. The crowd, deprived of its show, began to move in towards the woman with angered, primal shouts. "Mina! Hang on!" the brunette cried. She grabbed the nearest part of the railing and yanked, which allowed her to secure a long pipe weapon for herself as she jumped onto the pole and slid down. "Keep looking, Mr. Joestar!" she called back before she hit the stage, smacking a pair of hands that had grasped Mina's ankles with her makeshift weapon. Just as she stood in front of Mina, the woman was dragged by the wrists off the other side of the stage with a yelp as the unclothed masses began to gather around her. Suki took the end of the pipe and swung it heavily at the attackers nearest her before dropping to the floor and staying in front of her friend. "Back _off_!" roared the younger woman, batting away anybody that got too close.

"S-Suki…" Mina called weakly before groaning again. "S-Stop…"

"Mina, I'm not gonna let them hurt you!" assured Suki, thrusting her weapon into the stomach of a particularly aggressive stranger. He surprised her by grabbing the weapon with a firm grip. Instinctively, the girl yanked herself forward and nailed the man with a right hook, which knocked him to the floor as she pulled back her pipe. The anger of the audience seemed to turn on her with that action, as the various men and women all turned their predatory gazes to the younger girl. Even as Suki took one person out with her pipe, two more would lunge at her. She was gradually forced back into a corner of the room. Mina looked up and her eyes widened.

"Suki!" Joseph called out to her. "Hang on, I'll-!"

"I told you to keep looking!" she implored before one of the crowd members landed a particularly harsh punch to her jaw. She stepped back before turning her hardened gaze back up. "Don't worry about me! We have to find Jotaro!" Mina tried to raise herself to her feet before stumbling slightly and landing on a knee. "Mina, stay back!" scolded Suki, swinging her weapon at a pair of men who had gotten two close before a third swept his leg under her and knocked her off her feet. She fell to the ground with a grunt before looking up and locking eyes with her friend. "It's better me than you!"

Mina felt her heartbeat throb in her skull. _Is this what you want? _she felt more than heard a dark voice accompany the pulsating feeling, one that almost sounded like her own. A similar scene played out in her mind, fuzzily, as she sat on her knees, battered and bruised, cut and scarred, completely prone, in the walls of her own home.

_You…You're doing this to me…? _she asked inwardly.

_If you want to fight…fight back…_ Mina remembered, as she looked up to a larger man she knew all too well. He stood in front of her with his arms spread wide. The red scarf adorned by two white feathers that he wore around his neck rustled faintly in the desert wind.

"_Asfoora_, you've done enough…more than enough times…" the man comforted before he turned back to the girl with a sad smile as the crowd of officials slowly approached him. "It's better me than you."

_You don't want that to happen again, do you?! _the voice all but yelled.

"Of course, I fucking don't!" howled Mina. Tears began to form in her eyes from the pain and sweat cascaded down her face. She finally found the strength to rise to her feet as she wiped at her eyes. She made eye contact with Suki, as the younger girl was lifted by the throat and pinned to the wall. The brunette grasped desperately at the hand that held her up. The pipe she used had since fallen to the ground. The man who held Suki aloft sneered and reached for the tie securing her robe around her body as the rest of the group began to crowd around her. "It won't happen…not now, not ever again…"

_Well, then…_the voice trailed off as a transparent wraith began to form slowly into existence next to her. _I'll be right beside you. Let's make your resolve a reality. _The spirit flashed a wicked smirk as all the pain Mina had been feeling seemed to fade into nonexistence. _Are you ready?_

"_Damn straight!_"

The attention of the crowd of attackers seemed to shift back towards the woman as they heard her war cry. The strangers were all unsettled as a strong breeze seemed to blow towards them. But, as the man holding Suki aloft dropped the girl, she was able to look up and see it was the pure force of the awakening of a Stand: Mina's Stand.

The spirit was clothed in a short pink and purple dress with a two-tiered skirt. Her hot pink high-heeled boots, magenta gloves, and black metal collar did attract the eye, but, more than anything, anyone who looked would be disoriented by the rainbow of colors that seemed to course across the Stand's skin, flowing upwards in a spiral pattern that ended at its paintbrush-shaped head. The wide white eyes carried the same smirk pasted across her lips as Mina's battle-ready grin widened.

Suddenly, the Stand disappeared as Mina began to run in a circle around the group of attackers. On closer inspection, she was dragging some sort of oversized paintbrush about the size of a baseball bat along the ground as she encircled the crowd. The pink-haired woman smirked at the girl as she passed. She carefully left Suki on the other side of the line she was drawing. As she reached where she had started the circle, she closed it quickly and handed the larger paintbrush off to her Stand. Mina summoned a smaller paintbrush in her right hand and a blank canvas in her left. With a breath, she haphazardly drew the brush across the canvas she held. Despite her chaotic strokes, a picture Suki had seen before, Vincent Van Gogh's _Starry Night_, manifested on the once-white surface before Mina tossed it into the circle. All at once, the crowd was sucked into the painting as the canvas glowed a bright white. After a moment, the circle that had been on the ground faded from view. Mina took a deep breath and walked into what was originally the center of the circle, closing her robe before bending down to eye the scenery of the painting, now filled with similarly styled caricatures of the people who had attacked Suki. "Is that how you _Stand users _do it?" she asked with a cheeky grin.

Suki's eyes were blown wide by the spectacle. She marveled as she approached the new Stand user, "You…You actually have a Stand now…Oh my God…" A matching grin spread across her lips. "That's awesome!"

"Yeah! No more sidelines for me!" Mina crowed as she high-fived her friend.

Suki absentmindedly cast her gaze up to one of the monitors, and her expression immediately shifted from unbridled joy to shock. What was displayed on-screen was a very foggy room. In this room, handcuffed to a bench on the floor, was Jotaro. His clouded glare was pointed at the woman who had met the group at the reception desk: Talia Swift. She tilted his chin up with a finger and gave him a grin that the girl could only describe as slimy. Suki's shock morphed into seething anger that made her blood boil under her skin.

"That…_fucking bitch_!" the brunette snarled.

"Whoa, wait, what?" Mina followed her gaze to the monitor. "Oh!" she exclaimed. The picture on the screen then fizzled out.

"I know where the enemy Stand user is!" shouted Joseph, lowering himself to the ground from the catwalk. "Let's go," he commanded without looking at the girls. His expression was the scariest Suki had ever seen. "Follow me. I know the way."

Suki and Mina looked to each other and nodded. The brunette stopped to reclaim the pipe she had dropped and tossed the older tape to her friend while Mina ran to grab her tape deck and the painting. Both then fell into step with Mr. Joestar. As soon as they exited the club, the three turned left and broke out into a run down the hall.

"So…do you get off to getting punched in the face?" Mina asked bluntly.

"Wh-What?" inquired Suki, taken completely aback.

"Oh, does your boyfriend _not _punch every girl he sees in the face?" the woman deadpanned.

"No, he doesn't!" the brunette denied vehemently. "He's abrasive, but he's actually really sweet once you get to know him!"

"Uh-huh," Mina replied without conviction. "Well, even if I want karma to get him, this kind of shit is going way too far. Once I find Betty, I can royally fuck that lady up."

"Betty?" Suki wondered.

"Wait, no! I left Betty back in Singapore! It's Bonnie I'm looking for!" corrected Mina, smacking her forehead. "I got my girls mixed up!"

The girls halted behind Joseph upon seeing he had stopped at a dead end. "Uh, Mr. Joestar?" Suki started.

"Hang on, I know what I'm doing," replied the elder, examining the corners of the dead end before slipping his fingers into an almost unnoticeable space between the right and front walls. Pressing the heels of his hands against the wall, he was able to easily shove the moving panel forward. The panel rotated to rest against the left wall.

"Ohh, _that's _why I lost Polnareff and Abdul so easily!" Suki realized. "The halls are full of moving panels like these!"

"Nice job, Gramps," Mina congratulated, "I wouldn't have caught that."

"Now you know not to underestimate me," the old man remarked with a sly smirk before he turned back to continue down the hall.

Mina seemed to stiffen slightly at that remark, not that Joseph noticed. Suki, seeing this reaction, smacked the woman on the shoulder with the back of her hand before picking up the pace behind her ally. The pink-haired woman rolled her eyes and fell into step behind the pair.

"Suki, did you see Polnareff or Abdul anywhere while we were looking around?" Joseph called behind him.

"No," the brunette responded, "you didn't either, I'm guessing."

"I would've pointed them out if I had," he shot back.

_I'll just have to hope those two are okay, _Suki thought.

After scaling a small flight of stairs, the trio reached a heavy wooden door with steam rolling out from under it. Joseph grabbed the handle and yanked the door open. Muggy mist escaped into the hallway.

The group walked into what appeared to be a mixed locker room of a bathhouse or sauna, with several lockers bordering the walls and wooden benches bolted to the floor in a straight line going down the middle of the long room.

"Ugh, that sweet smell is even _stronger _here," Mina noted with a wince.

"Yeah. It might be getting caught in the mist," Joseph mused.

"Okay, what is this sweet smell you guys are talking about? I don't smell anything!" Suki expressed.

"Well, duh. You've got those allergies stopping you up, don't you?" Mina asked with a shrug.

"I do, but I didn't think they'd be keeping out this strong of a scent," the brunette replied.

As the group scoured the room, they found one bench had been misaligned from the rest, as if it had been lifted from the floor with impeccable strength. Joseph crouched down next to the small metal poles supporting the seat and ran his hand over the pole on the left. He narrowed his eyes as he observed, "There are scratches on this one. This is where he was." The old man rose to his feet. "She knows we're coming. We need to be ready, too."

"Let's see…" mused Mina, tapping her chin as she looked at the rows upon rows of lockers. "Will Luck be my lady tonight?" wondered the woman, walking up to a random locker and yanking it open. It was empty. She hung her head. "What did I do to you, Luck?"

Walking up next to the woman, Joseph pulled open the locker directly to the left of the one Mina had opened. Spotting several items filling the locker including a long length of rope and a duffel bag, he turned to Mina with a shrug. "You weren't too far off."

"I will take that!" cheered Mina, peeking into the locker. Her eyes lit up as she let the painting she had been carrying fall from her fingers. She reached into the locker and wrapped her hand around the misshapen sword case she had been carrying earlier. "_There's _Bonnie!"

"Wait, Bonnie is…" began Suki, walking over to join the two in front of the locker.

"Bonnie is my bat," shared Mina, opening the case and removing the scuffed, black baseball bat from inside. After slinging the now-empty bag over her shoulder, she brought the weapon close to her body. Her fingers curled around the knob and the taper. "She hasn't failed me once in the time I've used her."

Taking a closer look into the locker, Suki noticed two pairs of clothes in the locker as well. "Ah, and there are the clothes!" she exclaimed before reaching into the pockets of her shorts. _Dammit, where'd the knife go? The sheath is here, but the knife isn't? _She clicked her tongue before stepping back from the locker and pocketing the sheath. "We can put ourselves back together later."

"Okay, but I'm putting my fuckin' heels back on," argued Mina, grabbing her boots from the locker and seating herself down next to her painting on the bench.

The group looked around the locker room for any sign of a trail to where they could find the enemy Stand user. Moving towards the corner of the locker room, Suki spotted a black powder on the ground. Tilting her head, she crouched down next to the scattered dust and rubbed her finger against it. Not trusting her nose, she felt the particles between her fingertips. _This feels like…_

"Guys, I think I found something!" called the brunette, making a coaxing gesture to Mina and Joseph.

"Some sort of black powder?" Mina wondered as she squatted next to Suki. Taking her friend's hand and bringing her finger closer to her face to look at it, she suddenly pulled back and sneezed. "Ugh, God, that smells _awful_!"

"It's tobacco, Mina. Cigarette tobacco," muttered Suki, rising to her feet and seeing the black powder seemed to be scattered in small bursts across the floor of the locker room in a straight line. Closely following the trail, she saw it led straight to a much larger locker in a row of super-sized lockers that seemed more fit to hold equipment rather than clothes. "Could it be that he's…?" the brunette trailed off while walking toward one of the lockers. She tried the handle but it was rusted beyond use.

"Looks like it's my turn, then," suggested Mina, setting her painting down on the bench behind her and twirling her other hand with the bat. She stopped just short of the locker door. "She'll likely know we're coming in once I bust this lock. You two ready?" asked the woman, looking between the two. Joseph and Suki nodded. Mina grinned. "Alright, stand back!" she warned before bringing her arm back and nailing the handle with the barrel of the bat, causing the handle to go flying. Mina yanked the busted door open with her other hand and rushed through the passageway with Suki and Joseph right on her heels.

The passage led into what could be described as the sauna proper. Strangely, though, it was just a large room completely devoid of benches or a heater. All that populated the space were wooden floors and walls, a visibly thick humidity, and the two people they'd been seeking out. Jotaro sat against the back wall while Talia stood a few meters in front of him.

_Thank God, he's still got his clothes on, _thoughtSuki, breathing a small sigh of relief, _and it doesn't look like he's been taken apart in any way, either. That's good._

Talia looked toward the only entrance upon hearing the loud noise and sneered. "Don't you bugs ever quit?" she growled.

"I think the only 'bugs' here are the ones crawling around in your no-no zone, ma'am," Mina snarked.

"Charming," Talia shot back with a forced smile, "but, quips like that won't get you anywhere with me, honey."

"Fine by me," spat Mina, resting her bat across her shoulders. "You can use all the feminine wiles you want, but if you can't grasp the concept of 'consent is sexy,' I want nothing to do with you or your crab-infested nethers."

"Miss Swift," addressed Joseph, stepping forward, "I'd rather we not get violent here, so if you just let my grandson go and help us find the other two people we're missing, we'll be on our way."

"Otherwise," Suki added while walking past the old man and brandishing her pipe, "you're gonna have to answer to me and Mina." Her friend nodded firmly.

"Ah ha ha ha! How cute! You think you're gonna 'save' your 'boyfriend' from the big bad villain?" Talia chortled before her expression grew disdainful. "This is the _real world_, dear, not a fantasy land, and not a story book, either. You have to scrape around for whatever happiness you can cling to, it's in such short supply. So, even if it seems to belong to someone else, you've gotta take what you deserve," explained the hotel-owner, turning her gaze back to Jotaro sitting on the floor. "That's just what I'm doing."

"There's like five billion people on this planet, aren't there?! Why are you so dead-set on trying to get someone who doesn't want you?" Suki asked.

"Just a few days ago, a little someone special told me I would meet the man of my dreams right in this very hotel. He told me to never give up on him," Talia shared with a dreamy smile. "Oh, I certainly regret not believing him at the time. My man ended up being so much _more _than I ever thought he would be."

"Are you sure that _Suki _is the one living in a fantasy land?" wondered Mr. Joestar, folding his arms.

"You shut your whore mouth, you old fuck!" the green-eyed woman screeched. Mr. Joestar's eyebrows raised at this response. "You have _no goddamn idea _how much I've gone through to get here! If life has _finally_ decided to give me something good for once, it is mine, and _no one _is taking it from me!"

At this statement, Jotaro woke from whatever trance he had been in. He rose slowly to his feet and approached Talia from behind without a sound. Suki's eyes lit up as she saw him move. Relief washed over her in that moment. That relief quickly chilled into dread, as the delinquent walked up to the woman's back and protectively wrapped his arms around her. He leveled a glare at the three people across from him and Talia. Suki vaguely heard Joseph mutter, "Oh, God," from behind her, as the girl felt her heart drop into her stomach.

"Aw, honey," crooned Talia, bringing a hand up to his cheek, as she gave the brunette a smug grin out of the corner of her eye, "looks like you finally came to your senses."

"Don't you…" bit Suki, visibly shaking as the grip on her pipe became white-knuckled.

"Suki?" called Mina, her expression shocked as she viewed her friend's face. Suki's expression was unrecognizable to Mina in that moment; the violent emotion that laced the brunette's voice painted her visage into a picture the pink-haired woman had never laid eyes on.

"Suki," cautioned Joseph, stepping out and placing a hand over hers, steadying her shaking grip. "Remember what I told you?"

Suki shook off the old man's grip and broke out into a sprint towards Talia. "_Don't you touch him, you fucking monster!_" she screamed at the top of her lungs as she swung her weapon straight for the head of the enemy Stand user. Jotaro quickly shifted in front of the woman and caught the pipe before it could make contact. Suki blinked in surprise before the thug dragged her forward and threw his fist into her stomach. She spat up a glob of blood from the impact, as she heard a set of footsteps come around her side.

"You messed with the wrong—!" Mina's battle cry was cut off as Talia moved in swiftly and hit her with a roundhouse to the waist. The pink-haired woman was flung across the room. Suki moved to sweep her leg under Jotaro's, but he raised his leg and harshly shoved her away. She was forced her to release the grip on her pipe as she tumbled backwards across the floor. The delinquent tossed the pipe back to the group. It landed and rolled toward the brunette while she stumbled back to her feet with a weak cough.

"What are you doing, hon?" interrogated Talia, putting her hands on her hips.

"Giving them a fairer chance," the thug responded in Japanese. "If they're gonna fall, might as well give them a chance to use all they've got."

"That's sweet of you, but I don't think you need to give them that benefit," the enemy Stand user replied in the same language with a pout, "They're trying to tear us apart after all."

Suki grimaced as she listened to the two banter.

"Well, that certainly worked well, didn't it?" Joseph deadpanned.

"Sorry about that," the girl responded.

"Apologize to your poor gut, that looked like it hurt!" Mina chimed in while rubbing her side as she joined back up with the group.

"Yeah…" Suki muttered, "but, it's weird. Doesn't it seem like they're moving a lot faster than us?"

"So, you noticed, too," agreed Mr. Joestar, bringing a hand to his chin. "I think it's got something to do with Talia's Stand. I thought something was off when I was climbing to the ladder back downstairs; it took a lot longer than it should've, considering it wasn't that much of a distance to climb."

"You sure that isn't just age, Gramps?" wondered Mina, scratching her head.

"Age has got nothing on me, young lady," retorted Joseph, folding his arms.

"Oh, _does _it now?" the tomboyish woman asked with a grin.

"Well, what are we supposed to do with the hint that they're moving faster than us?" Suki interjected.

"I told you before, Suki," Joseph reminded with a smirk. "I have a plan."

The girl sighed, "Okay, but what's-?"

"Watch out!" the old man shouted.

Suki turned her head forward, too late to block a punch from Jotaro that landed square in her left jaw. She caught herself with her arms and somersaulted to her feet a sizable distance away before turning back to the approaching delinquent with a defensive stance. The girl saw Joseph launch Hermit Purple at Jotaro, only for the younger man to step to the side and easily dodge the purple vines. The old man swore under his breath before turning his attention to Talia, who had rushed up to Mina faster than he had expected.

Mina swung her bat at Talia's waist, but the green-eyed woman dashed back. The pink-haired woman swung from the left and the right quickly. The older woman evaded without much effort, before Mina raised the bat high and brought it down. Talia stepped back, placed her high heel on the barrel, stepped up, and kicked Mina in the chin. Without recovering from her recoil, Mina stepped back and aimed a roundhouse kick to Talia's waist. The green-eyed woman grunted from the blow but she quickly recovered, grabbed Mina's ankle, and dragged her forward. Talia threw a left hook into Mina's cheek. The younger woman stepped forward with her other foot and dug her own heel into Talia's toe. The older lady screeched in pain before dropping Mina's leg.

As Suki dodged as many punches as she could from the delinquent, she noticed Joseph pull a small white envelope from his pocket. _That's…_ the girl thought. The old man opened it before sliding it back into his pocket and rushing forward with a long length of rope over his shoulder. Suki glanced at her satchel for a fraction of a second. _When did he…? _The brunette shook her head and turned her attention back to Jotaro. His assault never faltered; however, Suki found she could evade his punches as fast as he could throw them. _He caught me off guard with those first few attacks, but now I can guard like usual… _As she ducked under a left hook, she briefly flicked her eyes to Joseph and Mina, who seemed to be moving slower in comparison to Talia. _I had thought the movement of the others had slowed down once we reached the locker room, but now it's clear._ They're_ moving slower while _I'm_ in the clear…but why? _The girl sneezed, leaving herself wide open for a jab to the cheek from the delinquent. She jumped back quickly as a realization dawned on her. _Wait, are my allergies the reason? _Jotaro threw a right hook at her. _I need…I need time to think…!_

Suki felt a sharp bolt of pain ricochet through her bones as Jotaro's fist made contact with her blocking left arm. She let out a heavy yell of pain, which briefly caught the attention of Talia, Joseph and Mina. The enemy Stand user grinned before turning her eyes back to her two opponents, who wore expressions of concern. Meanwhile, the sound gave Jotaro pause as he blinked slowly.

_He didn't actually break anything. I'd intended to surprise him…_Suki thought. "Jotaro, can you hear me?" _Is sound cutting through the brainwashing?_

The delinquent straightened up slightly but remained in his defensive stance.

_There's the opening I wanted! _Thought the girl, clearing her throat. "Jotaro, it's me," _I'm the only one with allergies. _"Do you remember me?" _I'm the only one who couldn't smell anything. _"It's me, Suki," _But, the others kept talking about…a cloyingly sweet smell. _"Come on, is the Stand messing with how you see me, or something?" Jotaro rubbed harshly at his eyes. _So, something else I inhaled before must have put me to sleep, and now there's something _else _going through the air that doesn't affect me because I can't detect scents… This Stand affects the air we breathe..._ She stepped closer to Jotaro, who took a step back while growling at her. "Easy, easy. I don't know if I look like me, but I know I sound like me. It's fine…" _If I can purify the air we're breathing... _

Suki slowly reached into her satchel and pulled out her gas mask. As she stood in front of him, the girl began to carefully raise the mask to his face. Reacting to the strange object approaching him, Jotaro pulled his arm back and threw a punch at Suki. The brunette caught his fist. She yanked down on his hand to pull him to her level, before reeling her head back and slamming it into Jotaro's. The man stumbled back from the blow, which gave the girl enough time to lunge forward with every bit of strength in her legs. She knocked the delinquent to the floor and pressed the mask onto his face. Jotaro began to struggle, but Suki shifted so her knees pressed into his arms, pinning him to the ground. _Sorry, but this is the only way I can think of…!_

Just as Mina swung her weapon at Talia, the older woman stepped to the side and pulled out a knife. Mina took several steps back upon seeing the bladed weapon. "Whoa, hey, easy with that thing! You might cut yourself."

"Hmph. You _still _think you have the upper hand in this fight?" taunted Talia, waving the knife about. "I could come over there in less than a second and slit your throat right now! Then there'd be one less person to get between him and me."

Mina thought for a moment before tilting her head. "Wait a sec. Do you even know what his name is?" she asked.

"Where'd _that_ come from?" spat the green-eyed woman, putting her hand on her hip.

"Oh my God, you _don't_, do you?" Mina confirmed as a smile curled up her lips.

"Of course, I do! Why should I have to prove that to you?" Talia interrogated while her eyes narrowed.

"Wow, that's fucking _rich_," laughed the younger woman. "Even _I _know that fucker's name, and I barely know him! Yet here you are, making an ass of yourself!"

Talia's eyes glinted with murderous intent as she brandished the knife. "I'm going to kill you, you little slut."

"Hah! Is that supposed to be an _insult_?!" Mina cackled as she flourished her bat at her enemy. "I'm the _queen_ of the one-night-stand, and pitiful, inexperienced bimbos like you will _bow _before the rule of your monarch before you sully my name!"

"Die!" the enemy Stand user shouted as she lunged at Mina, who took a defensive stance in response.

"Hermit Purple!" the old man shouted. Talia stopped just short of Mina and stepped back. The thorny vines shot right past her. Joseph's expression morphed into shock as he brought his hands to his face. "Oh my God!"

Talia sighed, "Don't you have some old folks' home to go back to? I think you'd be better off there."

"You sure about that?" he taunted with a smirk, before reaching towards the floor and grabbing a rope he had laid down. Pulling it up and yanking on it hard, the intricate web of twine he had laid down suddenly flew up and wrapped tightly around Talia's body. "Next you'll say, 'How did this bottom old man switch on me?'"

"How did this bottom old man switch on me?" Talia cried. Her eyes widened. "Wh-What?!"

"When you get to be as old as I am, you learn just how many ways there are to tie people up in your stead," he explained simply. He took a concentrated breath before shouting, "Overdrive!" A flurry of lightning-fast sparks seemed to sear across the rope's length. The sparks fizzled against the captive woman's skin as she cried out in pain. Joseph turned to the wide-eyed woman standing in front of Talia. "Mina, you're up!"

"Hell yeah!" acquiesced the woman, strafing around the woman and nailing the back of Talia's head with the bat. The green-eyed woman dropped to her knees with her mouth agape in pain. Mina walked in front of her and turned the bat over in her hands. She then shoved the knob of the bat into Talia's open mouth before bringing her right foot back and kicking her square in the jaw. The older woman fell onto her side from the hit as Mina stood over her with a grin. "You mess with the geezer, you get the tweezer…attack. Wait, shit, is that what it's called?" wondered Mina, turning to Joseph.

"It's 'pincer' attack, Mina," the old man corrected.

"Ah, right, my B," Mina admitted with a sheepish grin.

Mina and Joseph suddenly fell to their knees. Talia cackled above them. "You idiots! How did you not understand this before? The more of Hathor's pheromones you breathe in, the more you'll submit to her will…_my _will! You all have lost!" chortled the woman, looking down on her fallen foes. Talia then turned to look toward her final opponent. "Now, to take care of the—!" Her mouth fell open as she looked on at Suki, pinning Jotaro to the ground as he lay still. "No, no, _no_…" she muttered while stomping over to the two and brandishing her knife. She thrust her knife at Suki as her voice rose."It's not supposed to-!"

Suki merely leaned back and grabbed Talia's wrist. She pulled her opponent forward and pressed her hand into her stomach. The smaller brunette easily flipped the older woman over her and wrested the blade from her grip. "You must not fight much. Your balance is off. And that's _my _knife, thank you," Suki stated glibly while sheathing and pocketing the blade.

Talia's eyes widened as she rolled back onto her knees. She venomously spat, "Now, wait just a damn minute, you fucking—!"Jotaro quickly sat up and threw a jab at the woman, which broke her nose by the sound of the impact. Talia was thrown her back a few meters. The gas mask fell from his face as he breathed a sigh. "Glad I got to do that, at least," he muttered. Jotaro turned to Suki, who seemed to have relieved tears in her eyes that had not yet fallen. "What the hell are you crying for?" he asked.

"Just put the mask back on, idiot," Suki instructed with a small laugh as she rubbed at her eyes. Jotaro did not question this decision. He merely nodded as he replaced the mask.

It was then that Suki heard the sound of something cutting through the air. The noise was steadily getting louder, as _something _was steadily approaching from the outside.

_Wait…_she thought foggily, _the envelope…The plane…The time frame…!_

At that moment, a small plane crashed through the wall to her left, sending all sorts of debris flying. The girl pushed Jotaro back to the ground and covered as much of his body as she could with her own. The previous muggy mist in the air began to dissipate. A rock the size of Suki's head landed in the middle of her back. She fell from her propped-up state onto Jotaro's chest. A few moments passed before she felt a familiar hand card through her hair. Opening her eyes, she was met with a pair of concerned blue eyes, slightly blurred through the lenses of the gas mask. Suki gave her partner a reassuring smile as she rose to her knees, then her feet. She saw Joseph and Mina rise as well. Looking over to the plane, she spotted Whit at the side door.

"Miss Moon, please remain in the vehicle until I return, yes?" requested Whit. His grin was as prevalent as ever as he jumped down from the door. "I believe you asked for my presence, Mr. Joestar?"

"You sure are prompt, I'll give you that," the old man laughed.

"_You_!" snarled Talia, backing away from the wall to the middle of the room. She gazed furiously at the blond man. "You said-"

"I do recall saying. However," Whit's grin fell into a serious line, "I in addition also recall not referring to a specific person. Mr. Kujo was _not _the man to whom I was alluding during that conversation. Indeed, he was not even meant to approach this establishment. And yet," The blond man shrugged. "'Here we are,' as is colloquial. So, if you would please allow yourself to become apprehended, this experience will be less painful for all involved than has already been."

"Oh, no, I don't think _you _understand who you're dealing with!" fumed the enemy Stand user, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a blue pill bottle.

"So, you _are _the thief! I was correct in sending who I deigned to be the 'man of your dreams' after you in particular, in order to retrieve such a valuable item!" Whit explained. "Miss Swift, are you intending to tell me that you—?"

"Oh, I did use it!" she replied with a confident grin. "Worked like a charm, too. No Stand activity to speak of since I used it on him!" Talia turned her attention to the rest of the group with a sneer. "And if you all want your friend to be able to use his precious Stand ever again, you'll have to do as I say!"

Suki locked eyes with Joseph and Mina across the room. She then looked back to Jotaro behind her, who was slowly pushing himself up from the ground. _She means…he can't use Star Platinum…? I had wondered why he didn't use it during the fight, but… _She cast her gaze to Whit, who had balled his hands into fists. _Where did he even get something that can do that…?_

"You will let me have this…" drawled Talia, glaring straight at Suki. "You _will _let me have this! _You will let me have this!_" she shrieked.

Suddenly, the woman bent over. The air left her lungs in a forced breath. The container she held in her hand vanished. Suki felt a breeze brush past her. As she turned, she swore she saw the flicker of a limber-looking man she recognized before he vanished completely from view.

"You! Cease your movement!" called Whit, as he rushed after the invisible man, who burst through the door to the locker room.

"Wh-What…?" Talia asked no one. She looked up with a combination of anger and shock. "_What?!_"

"Mina, with me!" announced Suki, picking up her pipe and rushing toward Talia. Joseph turned a concerned gaze to the brunette before noticing her expression. She was completely calm as she approached the enemy Stand user. "Remember the Watercolor Marble?"

"Hell yeah, Kiki!" enthused Mina, pumping her fist and joining in a sprint towards the middle of the room. "Let's light 'er up!"

Suki summoned Knight of Cups and pulled as much water as she could from her canteen and expanded it into a thin, round sphere, about five meters in length. She held the ball in the air above Talia. Mina called out her Stand and took the large brush from the spirit's grip. The pink-haired woman twirled the painting tool like a baton before flicking it toward the sphere. The flourish threw a copious amount of paint towards the bubble. The water and the paint mixed into a colorful rainbow sphere that Suki dropped on top of the enemy Stand user.

"Let's go!" shouted the two, brandishing their weapons before rushing headfirst into the half-sphere.

All Talia could see was the disorienting wash of colors all around her, so powerful that she felt blinded. She would've dismissed what she felt as a mere dream or hallucination if not for the repeated impacts she felt to her limbs, torso, and head from the combined force of Suki's pipe and Mina's bat.

"Off to you!" cried Mina, strafing back out of the sphere.

"You owe me a home-run, Mina!" Suki dashed up to Talia and aimed a swift kick to her legs. The girl followed up with kick to the side of the woman's head. The third attack was prepared as she took a step back and put all of her force behind one last kick upwards before nailing Talia in the chin with her foot. The opponent flew out of the marble as Suki fell onto her back from the misplaced weight. Mina, on the other side, readied her bat in a baseball swing. The tomboy circled her wrists and swung back just as Talia came within a few meters.

"Game over!" announced Mina, throwing the bat forward in a full-body swing, the barrel connecting with Talia's side with a crack, as if she had hit a real baseball, as the woman's body was sent careening back through the top of the sphere, out the other side, and landing in the opposite wall, as the marble burst into a shower of multi-colored droplets. Mina shaded her eyes with her hand and leaned forward slightly. "There she goes!" she called with a cheeky grin.

At that moment, the locker door burst open once more. Whit entered the room first, succeeded by several officials and Speedwagon Foundation members behind him.

"Oh, shit, the cops!" yelped Mina, looking from her bat to the officials before hiding the weapon behind her back. "It was self-defense, officers! That woman attacked first!"

"Mina, calm down," Suki soothed. "They're on our side."

Mina seemed placid in that statement for half a second before she looked back up to the entering group of men in uniform before her eyes fell on a man closer to the back of the pack. Her eyes flew wide in a panic as she took a step back. "Nooooo! Why _him_!? Why _here_!? Why _now_!?" she wailed.

Suki followed the gaze of the pink-haired woman to a man she recognized all too well. His metal spurs jangled as he walked into the room. The man tipped his cowboy hat to Mina as he approached. The brunette rubbed harshly at her eyes and blinked several times before looking back to see that she was not dreaming; Hol Horse, in the flesh, was walking right towards them.

"Well, I didn't think I'd be baskin' in your presence again so soon, Mina," the gunman greeted as he flashed a grin at her. His eyes lazily drifted over to Suki. "Oh, right, Houston told me you were against Dio the whole time. Certainly had me fooled."

Mina shoved Suki behind her as she brandished her bat at the man. "Don't talk to me or my sister ever again," she warned.

"Wait, 'Houston'? Whit told you…?" Suki trailed off. She blinked again and turned to Mina. "Mina, you _know _this asshole?"

The woman groaned before turning back slightly to Suki. "So, uh, you remember what I told you…about the preoccupation?" she mumbled.

"Y-Yeah, what about—?" Suki's eyes widened as she stopped. "Oh, Mina, _no_."

"Ohh, Mina, _yes_," groaned her friend, her eyes full of regret.

"I am _so _sorry," consoled Suki, pulling her friend into a hug.

"Hey, ya know I'm still standin' right here?" Hol Horse asked.

Mina immediately pulled back from the hug and turned towards the cowboy with a shrug. "And _why_ should I care?" she shot back.

"So, it's gotten to the point that we'll just have a casual conversation with an enemy Stand user. Great," commented Joseph, approaching the group.

"Does someone need to get punched?" threatened Jotaro, walking closer to the group.

"Probably," Suki confirmed.

"I'd welcome it," Mina enthused, "as long as you don't _misfire_, get me?"

"My ability to analyze the environment displays that there is a possible crisis here. Am I correct in my assumption?" Whit inquired after sending a few stray officials to work on apprehending Talia.

"Dare I ask, Mr. Whit Houston," began Suki, bringing a hand to her forehead, "why you ever thought enlisting _Hol_ _Horse_ in whatever army you're making would be a good idea?"

"Ah, yes, that will require an explanation, one that will most certainly require seats and a calmer situation," Whit replied before turning to the crashed aircraft. "However, I must check on the status of my passenger as well. If you will excuse me," the blond man dismissed with a bow before walking back over to the plane.

Suki stepped over to Jotaro. "So, you're okay now?" she asked. He nodded stiffly, keeping his eyes off the girl. She smiled and wrapped her arms around him. The delinquent kept his arms at his sides, refusing to return the gesture. Suki gave him a gentle squeeze. "It wasn't your fault. You know that, right?"

Jotaro sighed, "I…"

"Hey, you guys!" Suki heard Polnareff's voice shout. She pulled back from Jotaro to turn towards the entrance, spotting Polnareff and Abdul running in. The two men wove carefully through the parade of Speedwagon Foundation members and police officers as they approached the rest of the group. The eyes of both men lit up in anger as they spotted Hol Horse. They immediately took defensive stances and summoned Silver Chariot and Magician's Red in response.

Mina looked around the panicking Hol Horse toward the two approaching men and her eyes lit up. "Oh, thank God, more cute guys to talk to," she muttered like a prayer before nudging past the gunman and walked quickly over to Abdul and Polnareff before either could get a word in to the rest of the group. She stuck her hand out with a wide grin. "Hi, Mina Nocturn. Sorry we couldn't meet under more peaceful circumstances."

The man in the red robe seemed startled. He cleared his throat and politely hurried out, "My sincerest apologies, Miss Nocturn, but I must speak with Mr. Joestar first. I will introduce myself to you properly soon, please forgive my rudeness," before stepping over to the old man and speaking quietly with him. Mina pouted quietly after him, before she looked back with wide eyes to the silver-haired man, who had taken her hand with a gentle grip.

"It is a pleasure, _mademoiselle_. I am Jean Pierre Polnareff," greeted the Frenchman, pressing his lips to her knuckles before allowing her to retract her hand.

_Ooh, I'm likin' _you _already… _she mused.

Polnareff took a closer look at her before giving her a concerned look. "Dear me, that enemy Stand user didn't even give you the chance to dress yourself?" he asked.

"I _did _manage to find my clothes in a locker earlier, but, yeah, I was kind of on a time crunch," Mina explained.

"Shall we amend that, then?" Polnareff suggested.

"Absolutely," agreed Mina, allowing the silver-haired man to lead the way out of the room. She turned briefly to Suki and mouthed "Oh my God" to her exaggeratedly before turning back and following Polnareff.

Suki placed a hand on her cheek with a disbelieving expression. _What is happening? _she wondered.

"That is what occurred on our end, Mr. Joestar," concluded Abdul.

"So, Mina was right. The stairs _do _loop in on themselves…" his friend muttered.

"There is also the matter of the large number of," Abdul cleared his throat, "less-than-clothed people gathered in a corner of the locker room."

Suki faintly heard Mina shout, "Oh, _fuck_, my painting exploded!"

_I guess her Stand can't hold people forever, _Suki thought.

"It looks like things turned out okay once the enemy Stand user got knocked out though," Joseph observed.

As the two older men spoke, Suki and Jotaro stared after Talia, who was currently being carried out of the room on a gurney. Her makeup had gone runny from the muggy air and the earlier struggle, and her eyes were shut in an odd expression of peace.

_I hope I never have to see that bitch again, _the girl thought. She briefly cast her eyes to Jotaro, whose glare seemed to hold even more anger than in most fights. _And it doesn't look like I'm the only one who feels that way._

"…Indeed, Mr. Joestar," agreed the fortune teller, casting his eyes briefly to Hol Horse who had calmed down and was speaking with one of the officials while sneaking defensive glances the group's way. "And, if I am not mistaken, you told me that Whit would explain to all of us shortly why exactly Hol Horse is among this company?"

"That's right," Mr. Joestar confirmed. "Honestly, though, I really don't know if any explanation that guy gives will help matters."

Out of the corner of Suki's eye, she saw Whit jump down from the plane once more. The girl took a breath and began to speak as the attendant approached the group once more, "Okay, so about Hol Horse being here—"

"Again, those questions shall be answered in due time, Miss Kanao, but we have more pressing matters to attend to. Namely, the case of Jotaro's now-inhibited Star Platinum," Whit segued as he stared at the ground and narrowed his eyes. Taking a deep breath and pulling a slip of paper out of his pocket, he raised his gaze to look at Suki as he held the paper out. "My passenger was the only one to spot the thief of the thief of my items, not even bringing attention to the fact that he managed to pass this message on to her without my knowledge. This message was intended for _you_, Miss Kanao."

"Passenger?" Suki wondered.

"In due time, Miss Kanao," Whit replied without breaking stride.

The brunette sighed and took the paper and opened it. She quickly read through the message. The script was disproportionately elegant for such a short message. The girl cleared her throat and began to read aloud: "_Meet at the oasis five kilometers east of here. One person can come with you, but I won't show up if a guy comes with you."_

"Why would he say that?" Suki murmured.

"While I do accept the notion of perhaps defending oneself from one of the men who has a hairpin trigger of a higher sensitivity, I conjecture that this thief desired to ensure that _I _did not accompany you," Whit explained. Suki opened her mouth as if to ask something, but the blond cut her off. "Please, Miss Kanao, I request you keep all questions in reserve until the hour for explanations has arrived."

Suki rolled her eyes. "Fine," she conceded, "you better get ready to talk a lot, then."

"Suki, are you sure about this?" Abdul wondered while his eyebrows furrowed.

"I feel like we could come up with something…" Joseph muttered.

Suki shook her head. "We only have until midmorning before that boat leaves, right?" she asked. Abdul nodded. "Then we only have so much time," the girl continued. "If this is the only way to get Jotaro's Stand back, then I have to do it."

"So, you're dead-set on this?" pressed Mr. Joestar, fixing the girl with a firm look. Suki briefly glanced at Jotaro before looking back to the old man. She nodded. "Alright, I won't stop you," the elder allowed. "You be absolutely careful, though, you hear me?"

"Of course," the girl assured with a nod.

"I shall at the absolute least escort you out of the building," Whit offered. "Mr. Horse," addressed the blond bellhop, turning around to face the gunman as he approached, "you are to remain in this location until I return from my escort. You will be required to provide an explanation for the Speedwagon Foundation's presence in this locale to this group in my absence. Have I created myself to be clear?"

"Huh?" asked the cowboy, whose mouth gaped so wide he nearly dropped the cigarette between his teeth. He glanced back uncertainly at the group of men before lowering his voice as he spoke to the attendant. "Are you kidding me? Yer telling me to be left fer dead, alone with these guys!"

"That is not what I told you," the smaller blond man denied with a shake of his head. "You are a valuable ally, and if a hair is harmed upon your head, I shall perform the same in kind to the perpetrator."

"That…ain't very reassuring," Hol Horse muttered.

Whit placed a hand on Hol Horse's shoulder. "Position yourself to become eased, Mr. Horse," he consoled. "These are civil individuals. Proceed to not attack them, and they shall extend the same courtesy, under my word."

The gunman sighed, "Fine, but ya owe me fer the scare."

"I will note that dutifully," replied Whit, turning back to Suki. "Come along, then, Miss Kanao."

Suki made to walk toward the entrance after Whit but she was stopped upon feeling a heavy hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Jotaro standing behind her. He locked eyes with her for a split second as she turned before casting his eyes off in a different direction and removing his hand. Looking up at the delinquent, Suki stepped forward and took her necklace off from around her neck. She took one of his hands and placed the amulet in his palm. Jotaro looked back to the girl with slightly widened eyes. He couldn't stop staring at where his hand and hers were now connected. Suki closed his fingers over the necklace and gave him a gentle smile before pulling back. She gave a small wave before running out into the locker room.

Jotaro could only stare after her as his grip on the necklace tightened.

* * *

As she had suspected, the several unclothed people who had been trapped in the painting were now shifting uncomfortably in the less-muggy room. The men and women were collected together in a more contained group by a few stray Speedwagon Foundation members who had presumably been guarding the entrance to the concealed room. Without a word, Whit took Suki's hand and led her through the room, around the corner to a locker near the door leading to the small set of stairs from the hallway.

In front of this locker stood Polnareff, his back pressed against the locker as he leaned with his arms folded. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Suki approaching and stood up straight. The Frenchman took a few steps toward the brunette with a concerned expression. "Hey, I meant to ask earlier, but are you alright?" he wondered.

Suki gave a sheepish grin. "Yeah, I'm fine now that that mess is over with," she answered before looking about with a curious gaze. "Where's Mina?"

The locker door Polnareff had been leaning against opened abruptly, as Mina poked her head out around it with a grin. Stepping out of the locker, Mina announced "Here I am!" before adjusting her outfit from the previous day and the duffel bag that had been found within on her shoulder. "Who'd have thunk only the locker leading into that weird room would have a proper lock?"

"Oh, wait, are my clothes still in there?" inquired Suki, pointing toward the locker.

"No, I ate them," Mina responded with a serious expression. The brunette blinked slowly. She pursed her lips while Whit tilted his head. Polnareff snickered, and the pink-haired woman flashed a smile at him. "_Thank you_, Jean. At least _someone _here has a sense of humor," commented Mina, opening the locker and gesturing emphatically for Suki to enter.

"_Jean_, huh?" the brunette asked with a smirk before stepping into the locker just large enough to accommodate her size.

"You guys are _so _stuffed, you know that?" complained Mina, shutting the locker door and leaning against it. She dully noticed the sound of shuffling cloth reaching her ears. "Calling each other 'Miss' and "Mr.' and 'Last-Name-Person.' Loosen up a _little_, would you?"

"I believe the proper term of phrase is 'stuffy,' Miss Nocturn," Whit noted.

"Jeez, her point still came across, Whit," Polnareff asserted. "You just have to point out every little flaw, don't you?"

"I do not, in fact," remarked the blond, tapping his chin, "for, if I did, I would have much, _much _more to speak of concerning your person, in particular."

"Listen, here, you…" Polnareff started with a warning tone.

"My, forcing others to listen to you when you speak? That is certainly a new development," Whit interrupted.

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty," interjected Mina, causing the two men to look at her. "Or if you guys are gonna keep bickering, then get a friggin' room."

Whit chuckled, "Miss Nocturn, I believe that is a situation that would never reach the fruition you believe it would."

"Is this about the pitcher-catcher-conundrum?" Mina asked with a raised eyebrow. "Houdini, you gotta be willing to experiment. Otherwise, people you _think _are incompetent are gonna become even more full of that _prowess _you seem to respect while you're left in the dust."

"I beg your pardon?" asked the bellhop, his eyes widening slightly.

"You heard me," affirmed the pink-haired woman, standing up straight as she turned fully to the blond man. "You yank that stick out of your ass before I come over there and do it myself!"

Whit could only gape as he stared at the woman.

"_Merde_, you actually shut him up," Polnareff mumbled in awe.

"That an achievement?" Mina asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"_Yes_," the Frenchman responded.

"I'm done," Suki announced.

"Door's not blocked," Mina called back.

The brunette quickly exited the locker and held out the folded message to Mina. "Got an assignment for you," she reported.

The pink-haired girl skeptically took the paper and unfolded it. After reading the words aloud, she gave her friend a mischievous grin. "You asking me on a _date_?" proposed the boisterous woman, wiggling her eyebrows.

"_Mina_," Suki sighed, "you're the only one I can bring along to get the thing Jotaro needs to get his Stand back."

"Why do you need me for this scandalous-sounding rendezvous?" Mina queried.

"The person who scripted the letter is the culprit of the theft of the item we require in order to return Mr. Kujo's Stand under his control. He requires that any accompanying companions possess two X chromosomes, or he will not appear," Whit responded in Suki's place.

"Okay…Not that I'm against going out to help Kiki in any way I can," Mina began, "but, couldn't we dress up another guy and have him come with us?"

"I am aware based on prior experience that this is a person who would not fall for such parlor tricks, Miss Nocturn," Whit explained.

"Hey, makeup can perform miracles, you know?" the pink-haired woman defended.

"We'd need more than a miracle for most of these guys," Suki muttered.

"I hate to say it," Polnareff sighed, "but couldn't you two bring Iggy along? He's not exactly a 'guy,' like that letter makes it sound like."

"Oh, you've got a point," Suki murmured. Mina looked at her friend quizzically. "Ah, he's probably still outside, I think. I feel like you two will get along great," the brunette predicted.

"He gets along great with anyone willing to spoil him," Polnareff scoffed.

"Did I stutter?" the younger woman responded.

"Now, if we are _quite_ finished in this location," began Whit, turning and beginning to walk out of the locker room.

"Right behind you!" called Suki, falling into step with the blond man.

"I'll walk out with you three," the Frenchman suggested.

"That shall not be necessary," denied Whit, stopping in place. "Once the two women have departed, I shall be on my way as well, leaving you to your own devices. Trouble would abound from such circumstances, as I hope you are well aware. I implore you to remain with the rest of the group in order to be of the most use at any point in time."

With that, the bellhop continued to walk out of the room, leaving Polnareff silent in his wake. Suki turned back and shot the Frenchman an apologetic look before following the blond man outside. Mina mimed holding a phone next to her ear as she passed him before running after her friend.

"Okay, can I at least ask how you managed to recruit all of those Speedwagon Foundation officials?" Suki asked as Whit continued his brisk pace down the hall.

"Ah, yes," realized the attendant, reaching into his pocket and producing a Polaroid photo. He handed it to the brunette without looking behind him as he explained, "I believe this microcosm of photographic evidence shall suffice."

Suki took a closer look at the picture to see a group of people, all wearing the Speedwagon Foundation uniform, milling about what looked to be some sort of office building. Two of the people who were sticking especially close together looked exceedingly familiar to the girl, as she recognized the pale complexion and night-black locks of the man, and the light blond hair and glittering silver eyes of the woman.

_Curt Kobain and Silva again_, Suki thought.

"Truly, those two are capable of miracles," Whit mused.

"You can say that again," muttered Suki, squinting as Whit held open one of the front doors of the building. "Right, then, so the oasis in question is five kilometers east of here?"

"Car's this way," Mina pointed in the direction she was walking as she rounded the corner of the hotel.

"Wait, _car_?" Suki asked. "_You _can drive?"

"Yepperoonie!" affirmed Mina, pulling out a set of car keys from her duffel bag. "Public transport can go suck it now. I've got my own car!"

Sure enough, just around the corner sat a blue jeep that seemed almost like new, with only a few scuffs and dust stains to signify that it had been used at all.

"Your own car that you have _borrowed _from my possession, Miss Nocturn," Whit corrected.

"Hey, you said I could use it however I wanted when this whole mess was over. You can't take something like that back!" the pink-haired woman shot back.

"Where do you keep getting cars from?" asked the brunette, narrowing her eyes at Whit.

"That would be a story for another day, Miss Kanao," replied the man, casting his gaze about. "Now, where would Mr. Iggy be at this particular point in time?"

Suki raised an eyebrow before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a strip of coffee gum she had held onto. Despite Mina's confused expression, the brunette began to call out for their canine companion, "Iggy! Here, boy!"

The three heard a bark from around the corner of the building before the Boston Terrier scampered over to them. Suki chuckled and tossed the gum towards the dog. Iggy easily snapped it out of the air and began to gnaw on the treat while settling down on the sand.

"Dog!" cried Mina, nearly tripping over herself as she approached Iggy. "Dog, dog, dog, dog, dog-!"

"Miss Kanao," wondered Whit, leaning over to the brunette, "does she typically—?"

"Yes," Suki replied without skipping a beat, "_always_," With a small sigh, the younger woman called out to her friend, "You can gush over Iggy in the car on the way! We're burning daylight!"

"Ah!" Mina seemed to realize her surroundings at this statement as she turned back to Suki. "Right, gotta save your boyfriend, and all that, but, wait," she stopped as she turned back to Iggy with a befuddled look, "you can't be serious about bringing a sweet little dog along like this, can you?"

Iggy seemed to scoff at this statement.

"That 'sweet little dog' actually has a Stand of his own, so he can fight just as well as any of the rest of us," Suki clarified.

Mina looked from Suki to Iggy and back again. "I don't believe you," she concluded.

"Believe what you want," Suki allowed with a shrug, "but it isn't exactly something I could come up with on the fly."

"You make a fair point," conceded Mina, opening the back door of the jeep and throwing her duffel bag and bat bag into the backseat.

"Hold the door," called Suki, pulling another strip of gum from her pocket and tossing it into the backseat. Iggy immediately bolted to his feet and leapt into the vehicle after the treat. He gobbled it up just as Mina shut the door and walked over to the driver's seat.

"Now, then, you are both aware of the danger…" Whit explained as he walked to the jeep with Suki.

"Yeah, yeah, don't drown; watch out for bears; the usual 'be ready for anything ridiculous' warnings, right?" acknowledged the brunette, opening the car door and climbing into the passenger seat, mirroring Mina who climbed behind the wheel.

"Joking is the last action suitable for such a situation, Miss Kanao," warned Whit, his expression grave as he locked eyes with Suki. She rolled the car window down and shut the door as the blond man continued to talk to her. He placed his hand on the car door. "I am unaware of the details of the previous altercations you have had with this man, but, if I am correct in understanding your cues thus far, I would believe that you indeed perceive him to be different than I have come to imagine him."

"Whit…" Suki trailed off. She swallowed. "You…You knew this guy before, didn't you?"

The attendant took in a tense breath. "It is…not something I particularly enjoy speaking about…but, yes, I knew this man in the past," he confessed as he cast his gaze away and narrowed his eyes. "Or, at least, I had been under the impression that I did."

The words hung heavily in the air. Then, Suki placed her hand over Whit's. She gave it a small squeeze. The blond man looked back to the brunette curiously. "I trust you," she stated plainly. "And, I'll be careful."

"No worries, Houdini," comforted Mina, turning the key in the ignition. She gestured toward herself with her thumb. "I won't let my soul sister get a scratch!"

Whit paused before loosing a small chuckle. "I shall trust your travails toward the success of this task, then," murmured the man, stepping away from the car.

Suki nodded as Mina put the car in drive and began accelerating in the direction described by the message. The brunette rolled up her window. She cast a glance to Whit in the rearview mirror before he quickly disappeared.

_We'll sort this out…_ thought Suki, narrowing her eyes as she stared at the dunes ahead of them. _We'll get this sorted. I know we will._

* * *

Chapter Eighteen - Livin' La Vida Loca

-END-

|To Be Continued|\|/

* * *

**le plan = French, literally "the plan"**

**asfoora = Arabic term of endearment, means "bird"**

**merde = French expletive, "shit"**

**The plot thickens...I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I'm hoping start posting my content on a more regular basis from now on. I at least know that I will NOT be leaving you guys hanging for almost a year! I'm gonna carry that sin with me to my grave. Stay tuned for the next chapter/oneshot, and I hope you guys have a great day! -BlueBow**


	4. Chapter 19 - Of a Bachelor

**WARNING: This story contains instances of graphic violence, gore, coarse language, and sexual content. A warning will exist at the beginning of a chapter containing anything explicit, and will be sectioned off by another warning right beforehand, and another line right where the explicit scene ends. You have been warned.**

**Also, check the endnotes for translations to the words that aren't in English!**

* * *

"Chess, Lord Dio?"

The blond man looked to the brunet youth and nodded as he gazed upon the black and white board. In the almost-suffocating shadows of the library, the candlelight glinted delicately off the small hourglass situated nearby and the surface of the polished wood of the table. The wavering embers illuminated the white tiles of the board with a mysterious glow. "It is a game I quite enjoyed in my youth," Dio reminisced while gliding into the worn chair on the black side of the board with an uncanny elegance. "I played with D'Arby relentlessly, shortly after settling here, but you can only play a person so many times before you learn their approach and strategy like the back of your hand," he sighed. The vampire propped his head on a fist and gestured to the empty seat across from him in one fluid motion. "Please, have a seat."

"So…" began the boy, settling into the chair and scooting up to the white pieces, "you want to see how _I _fare?"

Dio paused as his red eyes bored into those of his opponent across the table. "I will be blunt," he confessed with a dip of his eyelashes, "I want to study the inner workings of your mind."

"Huh. That is a bit forward," the youth muttered while shifting uncomfortably in his seat, "but, I will warn you: I partook in many a competition when I was young," he recalled with a small smile. "I fell off somewhat during my time at university, I must admit. Hopefully I will not be too rusty."

The blond man hummed in acknowledgement while rubbing a fingertip over the small hourglass to his left. "Do you require any time to prepare…?" he murmured.

The brunet closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Upon exhaling, sharp, green eyes opened and locked with the red irises across the table. "Ready when you are, Lord Dio."

A predatory glint flashed in Dio's eyes. The blond man turned the hourglass over delicately, as the corners of his lips pulled up in a smirk. "Your move, Brandon."

* * *

"See? I _told _you that the Watercolor Marble would work!" Mina stated.

"Okay, well, I know it worked then, but it wouldn't have worked before," Suki corrected. She turned from looking out at the moving dunes outside the window of the Jeep to look at the driver. "You didn't even know I had a Stand before!"

"Well, yeah, of course, it was just a fun move I thought could work after reading _Barony Souls_. Shit gets crazy in those books, lemme tell you," Mina reminisced with a grin.

"So you've told me," Suki humored with a small smile, "but you seem to get the idea that a _lot _of weird moves will work from those books."

"Aw, don't be such a killjoy!" Mina rebuked. Her eyes lit up as she stared at the rolling sands in front of her. "Look, think about it: if Stands are near limitless in ability, and their abilities are catered more towards the inner workings of the person, if I'm to believe Houdini's seminar, then it's entirely possible that someone could play catch with themselves while teleporting through fire or trap people in voids in their books!"

The brunette rolled her eyes. "You know, speaking of Stands," she segued, "have you thought of what to name yours yet?"

"Name her?" Mina parroted. She silently called to her rainbow-skinned spirit, who appeared and sat on the head of the driver's seat. The Stand didn't seem to care that her head was now phasing through the roof of the car. "I honestly hadn't thought of that…I forget, are you guys naming your Stands after Tarot cards or Egyptian gods and goddesses? I do _not _remember any of the people I met in Dio's mansion, save for the bastard himself, but I _do _remember hearing people mutter about 'Khnum' this or 'Justice' that."

"I think we're meeting more people with Egyptian deity names now," Suki recollected with a hand on her chin.

"Aw, sweet, I can fuck with people and make them think I'm on their side!" the boisterous batter snickered.

"…Sure," Suki indulged. "Any deities coming to mind for you?"

"Hmm…Anat is a little too high up the ranks for me, I think," Mina mused.

"Goddess of love, war, fertility, and sexuality…" the weary warrior mulled it over. "I mean, I think you could make a case for that being what people represent in their paintings."

"Yeah, but I don't wanna stretch too much," Mina replied.

"I forget, is Meret the goddess of art in general, or just music?" Suki wondered.

"Uh…just music, I think," Mina recalled.

"Right, okay, forget I said that, then."

"Ooh, how about Tefnut, goddess of moisture?" Mina suggested with a mischievous look in Suki's direction.

"Okay, no, I am not letting you make that much of a stretch between paint and moisture just so you can say your Stand suggests getting wet," Suki scolded while trying to hide a laugh.

"What? You have no faith in me! I wouldn't do _that_," Mina defended in an unconvincing tone.

"Uh-huh, well what can—?"

"I've got it!" the pink-haired punk realized as she smacked the wheel and inadvertently honked the horn. "How about Sia?"

"Sia was…?" Suki trailed off.

"Sia was said to represent the heart, thought to be the seat of emotion, thought, and character," Mina explained thoughtfully. "A painting is a showcase of the heart of the artist. At least, that's what I think."

Suki blinked. "Wow, that's actually a clever connection," the soft-eyed hero observed. "I think that's a good idea."

"Hah! I can put the smarts into action when it counts, Kiki!" Mina said.

As the car coasted over a particularly large dune, Mina's eyes widened. "Wow, look at that…"

Suki followed the woman's gaze to a small pool, that sparkled in the slowly rising sun, bordered by soft-looking grass and four lush palm trees. The locale seemed to waver as Suki stared at it, as if it were a mere illusion created by the desert heat.

Mina carefully pulled the Jeep to a stop and parked the vehicle. "Well, come on," coaxed the tomboyish woman, exiting the driver's seat after procuring her bat's bag from the backseat, "you said it yourself, we don't have all day." After checking the backseat to make sure Iggy was alert to any trouble approaching—all seemed to be well, considering he was snoring away—the brunette nodded and hopped out of the car.

The pink-haired woman sat cross-legged in front of the pond. She stared at her smirking reflection while she set her bat to her side. Suki crouched next to her. She looked into the water and watched herself quiver ever so slightly on the surface of the pool. For a moment, the brunette could swear she saw her facial structure shifting: her cheekbones lifting and the beginnings of stubble growing from her chin. The face of Brent Wilson grinned back at the girl maliciously from the pool's reflection. When Suki blinked, she was examining her own mirror image once again.

"Mina," her friend looked at Suki out of the corner of her right eye upon hearing her name, "do you… How much do you think it takes to become friends with someone?" she inquired methodically.

"'How much,' huh?" repeated Mina, scratching her head scarf as her smirk disappeared. "You know that depends on the person, right, Kiki?" Suki was silent. "World isn't just in monochrome. Those of us who can see color should make use of that, you know?" Mina huffed a small laugh. "That just reminds me of how we met. You remember that, right?" the pensive tomboy asked. Suki looked up at the brightening sky.

She remembered rushing through the afternoon market with anger at the front of her mind. She recalled asking around for a girl with a hooked nose who was no more than eleven years old. The scene played out once more in her memories, as she rushed up to the girl with the hooked nose and delivered a swift punch to her face. This tactic hadn't failed Suki before, but this girl caught her fist before it could hit her. The brunette pulled back and glared at the older girl, who made a taunting gesture with an excited smile before the two lunged at each other once more.

The brunette nodded. "Yeah…You gave Kyuu something really neat. I couldn't find it no matter how hard I tried," Suki conceded while her hands tightened into fists. "…I'm really sorry about that."

"We both had to get _so_ many Band-aids after that fight, but I honestly think it was worth it," enthused Mina, turning to Suki with a smile. "I don't think I would've met you, otherwise. If I actually regretted meeting you at all, _then _you'd have room to apologize. So, don't be sorry, okay?" Suki gave a small smile in return. "There it is! There's that cute smile," Mina laughed. The girl's cheeks heated.

"Kiki, on the real," Mina began while falling onto her back and keeping her eyes on the younger woman, "that guy…'Jotaro'…?" Suki nodded. "Is he…Are you actually happy with him?"

"What do you mean?" the brunette asked.

"You know exactly what I mean," Mina replied with a deadpan expression. "I about saw tears in your eyes when you started talking about Kyuu. It's gotta be that you aren't after him anymore, cuz he didn't give you what you needed like I thought he did." Suki tilted her head as Mina sighed.

The athletic woman stared up at the few clouds above before confessing, "Your bro…he wasn't the nicest guy to Mick and me. I don't feel right saying why Mick put up with it all, but I _do _know that you seemed so happy when you were around him. When you weren't with him, it was like a cloud had come by and covered the sun. That's why _I _never argued about it. If you were happy, then so was I." Mina grimaced. "Looking back now, that jackass was only using you. I don't know why, and I don't care why. All I know is that you'd be better off without him."

"I…"

"I'm not telling you to hate his guts like I do," Mina clarified. "That decision's on you. I'm just saying I don't want a repeat, not just for my sake." The pink-haired girl blinked slowly and sat up. "They're both quick to judge, and they're both quick to anger. I think I have a right to be nervous, Suki."

Suki gave her answer some thought. "I know you want me to be more careful with my second chance, Mina," she acknowledged with a yearning smile, "but, I honestly think it's okay to give it to him. He's really a good guy, once you get to know him." Mina folded her arms. "Okay, how about this: will you give me your blessing if I can get him to apologize for punching you in the face?"

The pink-haired punk cast her eyes away for a moment before gazing at Suki skeptically. "Maybe," she grumbled.

"Sorry to keep you girls waiting," a third, masculine voice chimed in. It was a voice Suki recognized. "I had to make sure you didn't bring any other…friends along."

From the shadows of one of the four palm trees around the oasis emerged a young adult male. He ran a hand through his pink hair. He grasped the locks and pulled lightly to reveal that they were only a wig, hiding a long brown mane that fell to his shoulders. The man grinned, causing his lofty cheekbones to lift even higher. His queer smile, accented by a smattering of unkempt chin stubble, didn't reach his dark eyes, which seemed focused on a point farther beyond the people in front of him.

"Willy…" Suki addressed. "So, that _was _you back on the boat. The man with the pink hair."

"Ah, so you finally noticed," he shot back. He folded his arms after he reached the pool.

The brunette's mind coursed through a film reel of the man's appearance the day before. She recalled the distinct differences between pinkened part-timer and the grim man standing before her. She remembered the bizarre set of circumstances that encapsulated their sudden, violent docking. "You lied about how your Stand works…It doesn't just hide you—it alters perception…!" the brunette realized. "Unless you had some kind of accomplice."

"Nope, that was all me," the arrogant brunet scoffed.

"But, you're a—!"

"Hydrophobe?" Willy finished Suki's statement. "Let me ask you this, then. If I'm just going to hitchhike onto some random boat that may or may not take me somewhere interesting, what use would I have for a toolbox? I'll even give you a hint and say there wasn't anything in there that I wanted."

Suki remembered all too clearly the loud splash that had reached her ears after seeing that the helmsman had vanished. "That splash was…!" she started.

"Huh, so you _aren't _as slow as I thought you were," the unfriendly man admitted with a hand to his chin. "You're right. I threw the toolkit into the water to make those dimwits think I had gone overboard when, in reality, I was just laying low before I took my chance and escaped."

Suki bit her lip. "Willy," she pressed, "why did you—?"

"Wait, question!" Mina interrupted while raising her hand. "Who's Willy?"

"_That's _Willy, Mina," answered Suki, pointing at the shadowed brunet several meters away from the two of them.

"Wha—!" Mina whipped to Willy with a disappointed expression. "Brent, come the fuck on," she groaned to him. "You're talking to someone who feeds off of making people laugh with stupid sex jokes, and even _I _think changing your name is just beyond a little ridiculous!"

The humorless man rolled his eyes.

"Mina, you _know _him?" Suki asked with a bewildered expression.

"Yeah, he's Mick's boyfriend," the punkish tomboy replied nonchalantly.

"He's her _what_?!"

"Hello? Still here," Brent interjected with a small wave. The two girls turned back to him with serious expressions. The conniving man sighed, "Look, you two have a boat to catch, so I won't keep you any longer than necessary." Willy reached into his pocket and pulled out the blue pill bottle Talia had held earlier that morning. "Here, take this." The lackadaisical brunet threw the container towards Suki.

The single pill inside hit the walls of the bottle from the sudden stop as the brunette girl caught it. She cast a glance to the bottle before looking up and locking eyes with Brent. "Whose… Whose side are you on?" she wondered.

"'Side'? That's a laugh," the inconsiderate man expressed with a chuckle. "You ever played chess? Either of you?" The women exchanged a glance before shaking their heads. Brent sighed. "Well, this might be a bit difficult to latch onto then, but try your best to follow along, alright?

"When you play the game, there's the white side and the black side," he explained while picking up a stray branch from under the tree he had emerged from. "Each player gets a king, a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns of their corresponding color. The goal of the game is to capture the enemy king; surround him and give him no other option of escape. This goal is carried out by the opposing king, queen, and other four subject types. Each of the classes of pieces has differing abilities that allow them to be used in different situations for different purposes—all for the purpose of forcing the opponent's king into submission.

"Now, say you're playing with another person, and your opponent has an advantageous position that you can't seem to thwart. Suddenly, something happens outside of the game that draws the attention of you and your opponent away from the board. What if, at that point, a third party entered the room and decided to mess with the pieces a bit? When the two players finally came back to the board, they would see the pieces have been moved into a more balanced scenario, with neither white nor black seeming to be a clear winner. Would the players agree to reset the board? Would they argue, given that one's advantage has clearly been compromised to salvage the other from their disadvantage? Who knows…" Brent trailed off with a smirk. He rested the branch he held over his shoulders. "Considering I haven't been stopped by anyone or anything yet, I'd say that whoever the players are, they're enjoying the show _just_ as much as I am."

"So, what are you going to do?" interrogated Mina, stepping in front of Suki and pulling out her bat from her bag.

"Me? For now, I'm just gonna watch," conceded the indolent brunet, putting his free hand on his hip. "I _thought _it'd be entertaining to watch that crazy woman fuck around with you all, but I felt the need to step in and pull the plug once it became clear that she wanted to ra—"

Mina smacked her hands over Suki's ears and gave Brent a warning glare. "Don't you _fucking_ say it," she snarled.

"Well, it's good to know you two share my disgust for that kind of thing," he concurred tersely. "Hopefully that wench will _stay _behind bars, where no one can find her."

Suki removed Mina's hands from her ears and stepped forward. "Willy…_Brent_…? Who…" she trailed off and swallowed. "Just who _are _you?"

"Let me say this," the solemn man began glibly while leveling an unsympathetic look at Suki. "I'm _not _your friend. You never knew me, and you never _will _know me. I don't see the point of telling my life story to someone who wouldn't even understand half of it."

Suki opened her mouth slightly, as if to reply, before closing it and shaking her head. "We got what we came here for, Mina. Let's go back," adjured the yielding brunette, turning and walking back towards the car. She stopped and looked back after noticing that Mina wasn't following her. "Mina?" she called quietly.

The pink-haired woman glared at Brent. Any semblance that Mina had before of being friendly or approachable was gone as she stared icily at the man. Finally taking a deep breath, she slid her bat back into her bag. Mina turned without a word, took Suki's hand, and led her friend back to the car.

At that moment, a loud bang echoed across the sands behind the two girls. When they looked back, the women recoiled at the blinding whiteness flooding their vision. As the spots faded from their sight, Mina and Suki saw Whit locking his knife against a long sword Brent had seemingly pulled from nowhere, as if the branch he had held before hadn't even existed in the first place. The two men stared at each other with blank eyes while trying to push the weapons one way or the other before leaping back from each other.

"Of all of the locales you could have chosen, you decided upon this _graveyard_…?" Whit interrogated tersely as he lunged forward.

"What, do you expect me to explain why?" retaliated Brent, sidestepping the knife and thrusting his blade towards Whit. The blond man parried the sword, but not fast enough to stop a sharp, dark spike from extending from the blade towards his stomach, puncturing a small hole in his flesh before Whit stepped further back. "Besides, that doesn't matter nearly as much as what you're _really _attacking me for," noted the calculating brunet, eyeing up his sword as a thick shadow rippled across the blade. He leveled an unsympathetic look at Whit, "does it?"

"Miss Nocturn, Miss Kanao, please take cover. I shall make amends to this situation," Whit ordered as he turned to look at the two women.

"Houdini, we were _expecting _a fight, we can help!" Mina called back.

"Yeah, 'Houdini,' why don't you let your little friends help?" Brent taunted as he dashed forward. As his foot made contact with the grass about a meter from Whit, the ground caved under and dropped the brunet into a pitfall.

"This does not involve them, _Brent_," spat Whit, pulling a grenade from under his shirt and yanking out the pin with his teeth. He stared emptily at the hole as he threw the bomb in. "This is between you and I. No other."

As the explosive combusted, Whit's eyes darted up, and he sidestepped as Brent phased into view directly in front of him. Brent's sword was close to the ground as if he had just swung at the blond man and missed.

"But isn't the fate of your precious world on the line?" the detached brunet asked. "You've gone on and on about this kid being the chosen one, so why don't you use her _now_?"

"My singular fate is not that which is tied to that of this world!" Whit shot back as he plunged his knife toward the nape of Brent's exposed neck. The knife, however, phased through empty air as Brent's position distorted to mere centimeters away from the blade. Brent spun around and swung his sword sideways at Whit's left side—the side whose hand held no weapon—but Whit blocked the incoming blade with his bare forearm. To Suki's surprise, the blade didn't cut Whit's skin. As though its lie had been exposed, the light around the sword shifted until it appeared as a tree branch yet again, and a familiar, shadowy Stand emerged from the exposed facsimile. Brent's midnight-blue Stand, Death of a Bachelor, reached out of the branch and dug its claws into Whit's forearm before lunging at the blond's other hand. As Whit kept his eyes on Brent, Death of a Bachelor's clawed fingers swiped Whit's knife into the air before gripping down on the blond's right hand as well.

Seeming to just notice his bindings, Whit flexed his muscles against Death of a Bachelor's grip but found he was unable to move while Brent reached upward and caught the knife his Stand had knocked from the blond's grip. "Try escaping this one, 'Houdini'!" Brent taunted with a satisfied grin as he thrust Whit's own knife toward the blond's chest. Brent's satisfaction was cut short.

A muscular, yellow arm phased into view, seeming to emerge from Whit's own appendage. The goldenrod hand clenched down over Brent's forearm and stopped the knife a hair's breadth from Whit's chest. Whit scowled at the phantom limb, and his grimace quickly turned to Brent. "I did not previously believe it to be possible to be in a greater state of irksomeness than I was heretofore, but I now have been made aware of the reality that that hypothesis was false. Congratulations."

The combatants suddenly vanished before Suki's eyes, only to reappear in less than an instant at the center of the pool at the heart of the oasis. The golden limb twisted Brent around by his arm as yet another Stand phased into view at Whit's side: a crimson, wraithlike automaton with black accenting its cat-ear-like antennae and lower body, cyan flickering lights on its face, and a worn sawblade adorning the area where its legs would be. The blade at the base of this robotic Stand buzzed angrily as it descended upon Death of a Bachelor, who released his grip on Whit in order to catch the spinning blade between his hands before it could bisect him. Meanwhile, Whit gripped Brent's free arm with his injured one, and using his remaining hand, Whit grabbed his enemy's darkened locks and forced the brunet face-first down into the knee-deep water. "You never saw that coming," Whit snickered.

Death of a Bachelor clicked concernedly as his wide eyes turned to his drowning master, but he found himself unable to give an inch under the overpowering force of the robotic Stand's sawblade.

"Whit, you're going to kill him!" Suki shouted from behind the Jeep.

"I am startled you did not discover this to be my intention from my first interaction, Miss Kanao," the blond man replied in a nonplussed manner. "Please remain uninvolved, as I instructed before."

"But you can't—!" cried Suki, beginning to move from her hiding spot. A firm grip on her forearm halted her. The brunette turned to gaze at her friend, staring at the unfolding murder attempt. "Mina—!"

The pink-haired punk did not respond but simply turned to avert her gaze from Suki's despairing eyes. The brunette turned back to the man struggling under the once-placid surface of the water. Brent was completely helpless to the strength of Whit's grip.

_Please… _Suki begged instinctively, _please, don't do this…!_

Mina turned back to Suki as she began to hear an almost imperceptible song falling from her lips. The tune was unrecognizable save for the desperation of its tone. The song was quiet to Mina; however, Whit flicked his eyes back to the brunette in a confusion-laced gaze. As if in response, a loud creaking sound echoed across the oasis as Death of a Bachelor began to bend the axle stabilizing the sawblade of the red automaton. Suddenly, the shadowy Stand spun its robotic foe around and slammed the scarlet Stand into the water below it. "Shit!" Whit screamed as blood burst through the blond's scowling teeth. Glaring at the water below him, Whit released his grip and took a step back as a hole appeared beneath the pool's surface. Almost instantly, water from the pool swirled down into the makeshift drain that was assumedly sucking Brent down into the freshwater abyss as well.

Grimacing, Suki bent down and picked up a stray clump of sand. Without a second of hesitation, she threw the sand as hard at the attendant as she could. The projectile hit home, exploding in a puff of dust as it made impact with the side of Whit's skull. The man turned with an agitated clench of teeth as Suki shouted, "Stop murdering him!"

"We will have words later, Miss Kanao. Expect soreness once I have concluded my lecture," he threatened.

"...Did he just come on to you?" wondered Mina, turning to Suki with a confused look.

"_Not _the time!" Suki shot back.

A pitch-black scarf extended from the hole into which the pool had drained and wrapped itself around Whit's neck. The blond had been too distracted by his conversation to react in time, and the dark accessory nearly dragged Whit into the hole with it. Luckily for Whit, his feet found their way onto a solid stone hiding under the sand beneath him, and he maintained his footing as he gripped the scarf in both hands to keep the force of its pull from damaging his neck. "Miss Surprise!" he called out as his damaged Stand sprung upward in an attempt to slice through the scarf with its spinning sawblade. The Stand was intercepted, however, by Death of a Bachelor, who caught the robotic Stand from behind in a full nelson and held it at bay. Moments later, a soggy hand emerged from the hole in the ground, and Brent crawled out of the makeshift drain. The waterlogged man seemed to have been climbing his Stand's pitch-black scarf like a rope to the surface.

"Yeah, 'Houdini,' stop murdering me," Brent chuckled as he wiped the water and vomit from his chin. His smile looked casual enough, but his baggy, bloodshot eyes were screaming murder.

Death of a Bachelor suplexed the robotic Stand—Miss Surprise, as Whit had called her—before gripping his scarf and yanking it sideways. The strength of the attack pulled Whit through the air and toward a nearby tree as the scarf unraveled to toss Whit into its trunk. Whit teleported at the last moment, however, and all of his momentum was lost when he reappeared on top of the tree. After coughing into his hand and grimacing momentarily at the blood thereon, Whit recalled his robotic Stand before she could be damaged any further.

"Well," Brent mused as his own Stand hovered by his side. The scarf normally worn around the Stand's neck was wrapping itself around Brent's arms, and the ends of it hovered eerily over his hands, "this is new." With a scream of something like rage, Brent reached forward, and his scarf stretched outward and wrapped itself around the base of the tree on which Whit stood. The scarf quickly retracted and pulled Brent forward toward his treetop adversary. Clutching Whit's knife in hand, Brent thrust the blade at its original wielder, only for Whit to teleport just past the blade.

Half a dozen more knives fell from Whit's sleeves, and he gripped their blades between his fingers as he spun around to stab Brent in the back. The knives, however, phased through empty air as Brent faded from view. Whit raised his leg in the air just in time to dropkick the real Brent, who emerged a moment later with knife in hand in preparation to stab Whit following his feint. Brent's scarf had wrapped around Whit's leg at the moment of contact, however, and the blond man was dragged down from the tree alongside his adversary.

Brent hit the ground with a thud, but he managed to roll out of Whit's way before the blond's knives could tear into him like talons. Brent scuttled to his feet, and a second image of himself split off his body. The pair of Brents surrounded Whit and stabbed at him from opposing angles, but Whit twirled his knives through his fingers before tossing a pair into each of the Brents' faces. Both images of the illusionist faded into thin air as Whit spit blood directly forward. The blood seemed to strike empty air for a moment before Brent's shout of pain caused his illusion to fade, and his body became visible as it was apparent the blood had landed squarely in his eyes.

Without giving Brent time to recover, Whit thrust the remaining knives in his right hand toward Brent's chest. Death of a Bachelor emerged from Brent's shadow in time to parry the blows, but the umbral Stand only managed to displace the attack as the knives planted themselves deep in Brent's left bicep. Death of a Bachelor clicked in pain and fury before swinging its claws wildly at Whit, who teleported behind the flinching Brent to evade. Aiming to end the fight before Brent could finish recoiling, Whit slashed at the back of Brent's neck with his remaining knives.

To Whit's surprise, his knives flew through empty air, and in that moment, a sharp pain pierced his side. He stared downward for a moment, and seconds later, the image of Brent's back faded from view. The real Brent Wilson was facing him—blood still in his eyes, knives still in his arm—and plunging a knife into his torso. "How did..." Whit stammered.

"Guess I missed your aorta," Brent snickered, "or else you'd be flipping out right now."

"You..." Whit coughed as he clenched at the knife in his side.

"I made an illusion in the time it took you to teleport behind me..." Brent wheezed as his breaths grew shallower.

The goldenrod hand that had protected Whit earlier phased into view. No, this time there were two. The hands wrapped around Brent's neck and lifted the bleeding brunet into the air. Death of a Bachelor's head emerged from Brent's shadow, but the rest of its body was unable to manifest before Whit stomped onto the creature's cranium. His own kick was enforced by a parallel blow from a golden leg, and the murky Stand was forced onto the ground, helpless and clicking, while Whit practically growled up at the shadow's choking master. "We are tired of your lies."

Suki's voice died completely in her throat. All Mina could do was pull her friend closer, hiding Suki's eyes from what both girls knew was about to unfold.

Whit took a grenade from inside his shirt—one that had apparently rested less than a centimeter from where Brent's knife had landed. The blond pulled the pin with his bloodstained teeth. Then he waited. He stood there, internally counting down the moments, as he watched Brent struggle in vain for air. "You know..." Brent's voice sounded telepathically through his Stand. "_He _had that same look in his eyes..."

As Suki cowered in her friend's arms, her guilt-stricken mind tore back to the last gunshot Michel heard before being struck comatose, the weight of the frail tailor's dormant body in her arms. Her feeling of tormenting responsibility distorted into apprehension and shame as she recalled the murder enacted by her own hands of the blind man known as N'Doul—someone who, maybe if he hadn't been approached by Dio, could have been a better person—and the poignant humiliation of the insults he'd spat that had cut deeper than she let on.

With a sudden burst of strength, Suki ripped out of Mina's grip and attempted to lunge across the front of the vehicle.

"_Stop_!" the broken brunette shrieked.

A fiery explosion marked the end: the end of a battle, the end of a life. Whit, however, appeared unharmed as he nearly collapsed against the trunk of a nearby tree. Flesh and blood stained the ground around where he had been standing. Mina looked on in horror and covered her mouth. Suki was struck speechless. The silent brunette let her head drop on the sunbaked hood of the car as her fingernails dragged against the scorching metal.

No one spoke. Whit panted and grimaced as he pressed a hand to the wound in his side. Mina hugged her arms as her eyes darted all around in a frenzy and sweat beaded down her neck. Suki finally pulled herself off the burning vehicle to stare up at the sky with an unreadable expression.

Then, without a word, the brunette staggered towards the blond man as tears streamed down her cheeks. Mina attempted to quietly reach out for her solemn friend, but ultimately decided that this was her issue to sort out. As the sober brunette reached the bloodstained blond, Whit looked up at her face slowly with an equally indiscernible visage.

"You are...displeased," he coughed.

Suki said nothing. After a moment, she stepped closer and brought her satchel in front of her. She pulled his shirt open more and assessed the injury before unpacking what she could use to mend the wound. Whit eyed her quizzically as she carefully maneuvered the blade from the gash in his side.

"I want you to tell me everything," asserted the dour brunette with a sob in the back of her throat. Her aflame brown eyes met the green ones of the injured man as she argued, "I want to know why you did all of that."

"...It will not be a simple explanation."

With the fire tempering in her eyes, Suki sighed, "I expect that, at this rate."

Whit exhaled a long sigh, allowing the girl to tend to his wounds. The only sound that broke the silence was the lonely whistle of the desert wind.

* * *

"Brent had…he had been a member of the group that was to attack Dio," elaborated Whit as Mina drove her three passengers back to the hotel.

Iggy, despite not having woken up for any part of the battle between the two men, had decided to leap into the front passenger seat just as Suki had helped the attendant stagger back to the vehicle. With an annoyed huff, the brunette had assisted the man in climbing into the backseat before hopping into the Jeep herself and allowing Mina to start the car again. It had taken a few moments for Whit to "formulate his memories into speech," as he had so chosen to express it. His statements were clipped and populated by several pauses. Suki hadn't asked for specifics concerning his past, but the way in which he spoke gave her second thoughts about pressing further.

"That group consisted of Brent, Miss Lyn, two small children, and their father…That was how many there were from the beginning, as far as I had been aware, before I enlisted myself in their actions," the beleaguered blond continued. "After I had escorted you to the drop-off point, our next phase of the plan was to be executed… However, shortly after returning to Cairo was I apprehended myself. Miss Lyn had been made aware as to the identity of the person who had given away our machinations… I never placed that she was naming _him _as a quisling before she was…she…" Whit's expression twisted in agony as he squeezed his eyes shut. Suki reached over to place a hand on his wrist instinctively, but she stopped before her fingers made contact. Whit shuffled away from her intended comforting gesture. The sympathetic brunette retracted her hand with a clearing of her throat. With a deep breath, Whit returned his hands to his lap as he stared down at them. "My apologies…"

Suki moved to give the man the space he needed. Mina exhaled a sigh from the driver's seat, as the sunny, sand-soaked horizon moved in front of her.

"I was unaware as to how much time had passed between when Miss Lyn was dealt with and when my turn arrived, but I only recall being treated similarly before waking up…_there_."

"The oasis…?" guessed Suki, recalling Whit's venomous nametag for the location.

"The bodies of those who would not…_could not _take to Stands, and those Stand Transplants deemed utterly useless… That is the location in which they are dumped." Whit took a long breath before continuing, "One such buried Stand Transplant, seemingly long-forgotten, created the area you just saw as an oasis."

"Houdini gave me the lowdown on what STs are when he was bringing me back here," Mina added somberly. "I have to wonder, though: why the hell did they leave that Stand Transplant on you if they thought you weren't gonna make it?"

Whit paused before answering in a murmur, "That is something I have yet to deduce." He placed his fingertips on the red gem in his tight collar. "There are two possible conclusions that could be reached from such an event. The first is within memories I cannot access," he went on with his lips twisting. "Perhaps they had attempted to force Last Surprise onto my person and believed the Stand to have moved on alongside my own spirit. Too lazy to remove the accessory, they simply removed my body from the premises, only for me to awaken much later with sand in my lungs. The second is…"

"That they planned all this…right?" Suki finished hesitantly as her hands tightened into fists.

"I had not expected you to be the one voicing the pessimistic option, Miss Kanao," Whit confessed with a defeated half-smile, "but yes, that is the other conclusion to which I arrived."

"Do you…know what happened to the others in the group? The two kids and their dad, and anyone else you knew about who had joined your cause?" Suki asked.

"I have been unable to contact our allies since I woke up…" Whit stated, "I had thought them all dead, and yet…one was alive. I was able to contact one…somewhat."

"You either made contact or you didn't, Houdini. Which is it?" Mina snapped.

"Unfortunately, such an endeavor is not easily discernible in this situation, Miss Nocturn," the bellhop informed. "One of the children—Mr. Moon's remaining daughter—is the one whom you refer to as 'Anne.'"

Suki gave a long blink.

"Who's Anne?" Mina queried.

"She's…" _The girl who was running from a perverted orangutan when I first saw her. The loud girl I argued with over things that didn't matter. The well-meaning girl I talked to about boys and likes and dislikes in our scarce downtime, _the weary warrior thought. _If 'Mr. Moon' is her dad, that means the 'Miss Moon' he was calling to on the plane was her, but…she's…_ "…part of the cause? Wait, what do you mean 'whom you refer to?'"

"The child known as 'Anne' was…ripped away from her father. None of us had been aware…none but Lyn, who silently bore the weight of Mr. Moon's confession. Anne had evidently contained a long-dormant Stand. This Stand was forcefully removed from her and placed in the anklet that—" The blond man stopped himself as he noticed the car slowing down. "Miss Nocturn?"

Mina put the car in park and exhaled a long breath while running her hands over her face. She then pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes as she breathed out shakily. "Sorry, I just…need a sec," she excused curtly before exiting the vehicle and trudging a few steps away into the sand. Suki and Whit exchanged a small glance before Mina turned back to them and waved a hand dismissively, goading them on into conversing without her.

"The child that you have been talking to…that is _Margret_, the twin sister of Anne. She wields the Stand addressed as 'Bachelor's Paradise,' which enabled her to make multiple, identical copies of herself in an almost immediate span of time, in addition to creating disguises of people she had heard and seen at least once," Whit explained.

"How do you know that Margret wasn't the one who had her Stand taken away?" Suki inquired.

"Margret was given a task to perform before we moved on to the succeeding phase of our plan," answered the blond man, locking eyes with Suki. "That task…was masquerading as your mother…and attempting to convince you to remain in Cairo."

The girl's eyes widened and her mouth fell agape. A few moments passed before she breathed a weak chuckle. "_Now _it makes sense why she was _there_, instead of hiding when I came in. And here I thought her Stand had stopped working for some reason…" Suki mused before shaking her head. "Wait, but that doesn't explain why…she knew about that, when I talked with her on the phone…She knew about that conversation, and didn't even deny that it had happened between _us_…"

"I have been left unaware as to how exactly Bachelor's Paradise functioned," Whit confessed, "but, perhaps it allowed Margret a deeper dive into the psyche of the person she assumed the appearance of than first thought. As for why your mother had been aware of that discussion…" The man fiddled with the bandages under his open shirt as he went on, "In a spare moment, Margret had asked if she had performed well in her role and confessed what she had said and done in your mother's shoes. I confessed that I had no previous interaction with the woman to draw upon, but I told her I would speak with Ms. Kanao and return to her. I was unable to do so…until I awoke in the oasis. Upon hearing what had occurred, I received many a bruise from your mother, much as I attempted to reassure her that you were in safe hands."

Unable to fight a small smile that crept onto her lips at the thought of her overbearing mother, Suki asked further, "What's going on with Margret, then? What was she doing on a boat from Hong Kong, and why is she going by 'Anne?'"

"In the entirety of honesty, I have no earthly idea as to why she suddenly appeared on that vessel. As to why she goes by 'Anne,' in contrast…" Whit placed a hand on his chin. "This information was obtained from Brent, so its reliability may be questionable, but his psychological studies bore this fruit: in order to dispel or cover over past trauma, a person may assume the identity of another person."

"Isn't that…Multiple Personality Disorder?" probed Suki, faintly recalling the scant few weeks she'd spent looking over psychology books with her mother.

"I do not find myself with the ability to tell you," Whit conceded. "All I am aware to is that this girl no longer acts like the timid, demure youth known as 'Margret,' but the rowdy, vulgar child referred to as 'Anne.' Mayhaps Margret will emerge once more. Mayhaps she has been lost to the shadowy depths, never to return."

The overwhelmed brunette took a moment to process what she had been told. "Well, whoever Anne or Margret is…I don't think she knows Stands exist. She doesn't have one of her own, and she doesn't even seem to see them."

"It is quite possible that her abilities have been stifled by her subconscious, in response to the trauma she experienced," Whit suggested.

"That's…new," Suki remarked with a raised eyebrow. "I didn't think Stand power could be affected like that."

"Unfortunately, I am remiss to create a more educated reason. Stands are…" Whit turned his gaze to look out the window of the car. His green eyes were wistful. "They are…enigmatic beings. Even as much as we believe we understand them, they still perform in unexplainable, unfathomable manners…"

Suki silently called Knight of Cups. The sun glinted off the watery surface of the wraith that emerged from the quiet brunette's figure. The Stand folded her arms and sat on the compartment separating the driver's seat from the passenger seat. Knight cast her hooded gaze to Whit. The blond man only stared at her quizzically. "You…You really don't like your Stand, do you," Suki noted rather than wondered.

"Let us not swap topics at this point in time, Miss Kanao," Whit rejected glibly.

"Right," humored Suki, scratching her head, "so, Stands in general, then. Kind of like fish in the sea, if you think about it." Whit raised an eyebrow. "We only know so much about them, but what we know only extends as far as we can delve. There's probably even more ways they can live and shine in their own ways. There may even be things we have no idea exist, things we can't even begin to fathom, down there." Suki absentmindedly reached for where her necklace usually sat before rubbing the edge of her tank top awkwardly upon the realization that it wasn't there. "Just how powerful can Stands be? What's the real extent of what they can do, and how they can affect _our _world?" Suki turned to the blond man to see his eerie smile had returned once more. "Did I say something funny?" she wondered.

"'Twas nothing, Miss Kanao," Whit replied.

"Sorry for the wait," Mina muttered with a sigh while slipping back into the driver's seat. She rested her head against the headrest and exhaled another, longer sigh as she let her eyes slip closed.

"You okay?" Suki asked after a moment of thought. She leaned forward and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder.

The pink-haired punk gave a half-hearted smile, placed her own hand over Suki's, and gave it a small squeeze. As far as Suki knew, Mina had yet to notice how red and puffy her eyes were. "I'll be fine," she assured. With that, the car was put back into drive and the vehicle resumed moving over the sandy dunes. "So, I've got a question for you, Houdini," Mina began while scratching her headband, "I'm not as well-versed in Stands as you are. How exactly do they crop up in people?"

"Ah, an apt question, Miss Nocturn," Whit commended. "A Stand can emerge from a person in early childhood, or a very specific set of circumstances can cause the spirit to appear later on in life. Potentially fatal situations tend to encourage the Stand to appear, as well, as long as a person is capable of wielding one."

"Okay, well, I'm a little out of the whole 'early childhood' phase of my life, so would my Stand appearing be a result of those specific circumstances?" Mina wondered.

"I deduce," Whit began, "that that occurrence may be linked to your earlier use of the Stand Transplant. Your soul's proximity to a Stand, despite your lack thereof, may have caused one to mature within your body."

"I mean…that's one explanation," Mina granted.

"What about dogs and orangutans?" Suki pressed.

"That is a line of questioning I have yet to address myself," Whit conceded with a small sigh.

"Oh, right, before we get back," the brunette started upon remembering something the attendant had mentioned earlier, "is _now_ a good time to explain how the hell you recruited Hol Horse into fighting Dio?"

"And, more importantly, _why _the hell?" Mina added with a disgruntled huff.

"Ah, well, in the terms of 'how', I believe I found myself able to convince him to collaborate due to my negotiations concerning agency and the human will, which managed to appeal to the miniscule shred of pride he somehow retains despite his consistent cowardice," Whit shared.

"Hah," Mina breathed a venomous laugh at this statement, "so he _is _compensating for something after all."

"As to the 'why'," Whit continued, "if we are to avoid as many casualties as possible in this upcoming battle, it would be erudite to recruit as many potential allies as possible. I comprehend the animosity the group experiences toward the vulgar cowpoke, but I contain true faith that his abilities will difficult to match by most adversaries. If only he could manage to quash his instinct to flee..."

_And he thought we would all need to be sitting for this explanation? _Suki wondered as she pressed her lips into a thin line. _Several emotional confessions from him later, and I'm pretty sure I still know barely anything about him. What could he have told Hol Horse that would've persuaded him, though? Maybe I could ask him..._

Before Suki could ask, however, the vehicle approached a two-story, rickety warehouse where the flashy, gaudy hotel had once stood. The airplane Whit had haphazardly crashed into the side of the building now looked to be buried in the roof. The many Speedwagon Foundation members that had paraded into the hotel were now boarding their vehicles, but a pair of the employees stayed behind to chat with Joseph and the rest of the group. Mina pulled the Jeep to a stop and parked the vehicle before hopping out. Iggy, after rising to his feet and stretching, exited as the punkish tomboy removed and shouldered her duffel bag and bat case. The two then stepped away from the car after Mina shut the door.

"Miss Kanao, there is a matter that requires my immediate attention," dismissed Whit, easily slipping out of the vehicle and walking briskly over to the building with his gaze locked on the aircraft the entire time.

Suki quietly stepped out of the Jeep and made her way over to the group. The conversation seemed to have finished just as she approached; the blond woman and black-haired man saluted the brunette with cheeky grins before rushing off to rejoin the rest of the organization members collecting in their vehicles.

_I was wondering why I didn't see them earlier…_ Suki thought.

Joseph turned to the pair of approaching women after waving off Curt and Silva. "Oh, good, you're back," he welcomed. His greeting encouraged the others to look to Mina and Suki. "How'd it go?" he pressed.

"Uh, it," Suki paused as she debated speaking about what she had just witnessed, "went," the brunette finished lowly as her expression fell. "…I kinda don't want to talk about it right now."

"No pressure," Polnareff reassured with an understanding smile.

Mina approached the anxious brunette and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks," Suki said with her best attempt at returning the silver-haired Frenchman's expression.

She noticed Mina tense up beside her and turned to see Jotaro closing the few steps' worth of distance between them. The pink-haired woman sized up the much taller, younger man with an unreadable look in her eye. Jotaro only stared at her for half a second before blinking and turning fully to Suki. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the softly glowing necklace. Mina stared wide-eyed as Jotaro held the accessory in the palm of his hand out to Suki. The calmed brunette gazed up at her partner and offered a strained smile. She visibly loosened as she placed her hand over the pendant without a word. Suki slowly took the angular heirloom from his hand and placed it around her neck before producing the pill bottle from her pocket and holding it out to him. Just as Jotaro reached for the container—

"If I may," Whit interjected as he snatched the bottle out of Suki's hand. The brunette whipped her head to look at the blond man while Jotaro leveled him with a quizzical stare. "My apologies, but there is no guarantee that the thief did not poison the concoction or swap it with a lookalike drug. As such, I shall be chartering a flight to the person who created this cure and its inhibitor in the place of beginning as soon as possible for one such as myself." The attendant managed to appear genuinely sorry despite his eerie grin. He met the confused delinquent's interrogative gaze with sincerity. "I must implore that you wait patiently for just a small period of time longer. Your health is of the utmost importance to me. I do not desire to endanger that."

"I…get it," Jotaro conceded while pulling his hat lower. "Better than dying of poison."

"It will be inconvenient," Abdul commented warily, "but these precautions are necessary."

"The matter I was previously anxious about has been resolved. My two companions and I shall be venturing off within a few moments to our next locale of import, and then I shall be returning to the expert I obtained the medicine from before. As for your party," segued the polite blond, casting a glance between the two women and four men and dog, "I do believe you maintain a sea vessel to board?"

"That we do," affirmed Mr. Joestar, gesturing for the rest of the group to follow.

"I assume you shall be remaining with this group for the time?" the bellhop questioned of Mina. "I hope you do not mind my utilizing the vehicle you have borrowed from my possession."

Mina stuck her tongue out at Whit. "Yeah, yeah, rub it in that it technically isn't mine yet, why don't you," she grumbled. The woman turned her gaze to the brunette with a smile. "I've gotta keep my soul sister safe, though, so have at it."

"'Soul sister'?" Polnareff chuckled. "Sounds like someone's attached."

"No, you see," started Suki, before scratching the back of her neck with a small sigh. "Well, I think we can explain on the ferry."

* * *

"Ugh, it took for_-_e_-_ver to convince those Speedweed guys to use a different car!" Silva whined.

"Hmph, I wouldn't blame them growing attached to us," Dagro chuckled darkly as the black-haired man kept his eyes glued to the sandy dunes coasting under the wheels with a firm grip on the steering wheel.

"How much longer do we have to stick with those SPW guys, _Spötter_? I've got an itch for shinies, and that chrome stuff or whatever they use isn't doing it for me," the bored silver-eyed woman complained.

"I can assure you, Miss Stein, that it will not be for too many more days," the composed green-eyed man replied.

"That's what you told me when I asked if I could see Jotaro or Suki, but who's to say I won't run off on my own?" Anne muttered from her seat in Michel's lap. The twelve-year-old folded her arms with a huff.

"That doesn't sound like a good idea, especially considering you still can't see Stands..." the reticent tailor murmured.

"Her pop's a crafty sonuvabitch," Hol Horse claimed while placing a cigarette between his lips, "I don't doubt those genes carried over to 'er."

Before the child could voice a retort, Michel spoke up once more, "What reason do you have for following the group to Edfu, Whit? And where do we factor into this part of the plan?"

"I am quite pleased that you posed the question, Miss Jackson," Whit praised, "for, you see, I have need of an aerial form of transportation to Japan for an errand of vast import. The pilot only became agreeable once I allowed for his request to convene in Edfu at a specific time."

"That doesn't strike me as very reliable service..." Curt surfaced to comment with a curious tilt of his head.

"Once it became clear to the individual that my threats upon his life were falsely founded, he became quite rigid in our rendezvous points," Whit confessed with a sigh.

"So, he's givin' you the runaround as payback for your death threats?" Hol Horse clarified.

"If one decided to be blunt in this situation, that would be an apt translation," the subjugated blond responded.

"Just goes to show, death threats like that will just bite you in the ass," the egotistic cowboy chuckled.

"Deception when realizing error would be incorrect," the attendant accepted before retorting, "I do not believe you have space to speak, though, Mr. Horse, as your efforts to manipulate the heart as well as the mind could very well be compensated through more than desire to send you to hell."

"Look who's talkin'" Hol Horse shot back.

"You flew a plane yourself when you came back from picking me up!" Anne interjected in confusion before Whit could speak again.

"Indeed, in an attempt to distance myself from dependence upon the manipulative pilot," the uncoordinated attendant answered while bringing a hand to his chin. "However, I all too soon came to the realization that landing such a craft was certainly more difficult than some would make it look." _In complete honesty, the certainty that Miss Moon and I remained unharmed while ensuring the security of Mr. Kujo, Miss Kanao, Mr. Joestar and Miss Nocturn enables me to forgive my inefficacy in producing a safe landing, _he thought. As he pondered about the results of that situation, he became hyper-aware of the metal circling his hallux on his right foot. _Such assistance would have been undeliverable if I was not currently in possession of Letters That Cross in the Mail. The ability to communicate directly with any individual who has that envelope on their person is exceedingly convenient for my own purposes._

Whit cleared his throat and emptied his mind of overzealous deductions concerning Dio's possible oversight. "As for what the rest of you shall be attending to in my absence...Mr. Kobain," he addressed.

Curt turned his eyes from the horizon back to Whit.

"Eyes on the road, _Schnuckiputzihasimausierdbeertörtchen_," Silva chided. "I've got it."

"Hah, right! Sorry, Silva!" Kristovo emerged to laugh.

Whit tore his thoughts from the garbled mess of a German word the dominant blonde had called her romantic partner and instead focused on the monochrome notebook—accessorized with anatomically correct heart stickers—she was holding out to him. "These are the notes we took of potential allies among the other Stand users that attacked the Stardust Crusaders," Silva disclosed.

"Why do you insist on calling them that?" Michel inquired as Whit took the journal.

"Well, I thought it was a cute name! And didn't Suki even call them that at one point, _Eine_?" the silver-eyed woman asked Anne.

"Yeah, but I dunno where _she_ got it from," the little girl recognized with a shrug.

"Miss Stein, did you perchance enlist a toddler to act as your scribe?" Whit wondered bluntly.

"What?" Silva asked as she swiveled in her seat to stare at the pages as Whit held them up for her to see. "That's perfectly legible!" she defended with a theatrical gesture. "What are you talking about?"

"I am speaking of the letters, specifically, which reside in such close proximity, at an angle, no less, that deciphering these observations is a chore in and of itself. That does not even commence to lacerate the veneer of how claustrophobic and unorthodox your line breaks and indentations are," the bellhop insulted blandly.

"Aw, come on, it can't be _that_ bad," Hol Horse half-heartedly defended. The lackadaisical cowboy peered over Whit's shoulder as the calculating blond turned the pages back toward himself. Hol Horse squinted at the scrawl for a few moments before raising his eyebrows and letting out a low whistle. "That's _some_ chicken-scratch," he remarked.

"You're one to talk, _Evolutionsbremse mit Hosenscheiße,_" Silva muttered under her breath as she turned back in her seat.

"You wanna call me that again, _Bananenbieger_?" Hol Horse replied with a surprising accent and an accompanying smirk.

Silva twisted in her seat again and glared down the cocky gunman. "Why don't you stop besmirching my language, _reisender_ _Dummkopf_?" she threatened lowly.

The surprisingly linguistically gifted cowboy smirked wider and leaned forward. "Why don't you _make_ me, _Kampfdackel_?" he taunted before blowing a stream of smoke in her face.

The peeved blonde didn't even flinch as her upper lip pulled back in a snarl over a typically hidden snaggletooth.

"May I suggest reserving your lovers' quarrel for when children are not within the vicinity?" Whit interrupted.

Silva sent a warning glare the womanizing gunman's way before turning back in her seat once more.

Hol Horse clicked his tongue and leaned back in his seat. "Ain't my fault she gets het up over nothin'," he defended.

Before Silva could insult the gunman again, the man who had remained silent beside her interjected in a smaller voice, "I think your writing is pretty."

"Aw, thank you, Nirvan, _Liebling_, that's so—" Silva stopped. "You can't read."

"Forgive my impatience, but it would be most beneficial if I received a reconnaissance update in the succeeding year, if at all," Whit berated.

"Fine, fine, give it here," sighed the buxom blonde, holding her hand towards the backseat. Once the journal was placed in her hand, Silva opened the notebook back to her marked page and cleared her throat. "Now then, I've got two columns: 'Dead' and 'MIA'."

"There's no in-between?" Michel wondered.

"We'll get to that; be patient, _Mikrofon_," the silver-eyed woman scolded playfully with a wink directed to the tailor. Michel shrunk back slightly in her seat at the gesture, but Silva was oblivious to her recoil. "Which would you like to hear first, _witzig_?"

"I fail to understand how the order would matter in reading off your findings," Whit explained his lip twitching. "I also ask you refrain from using my moniker for German paronomasias."

"Buzzkill," scoffed Silva, before turning her attention back to the notebook. "Let's start with 'MIA,' then. Stop me if you want details. From top to bottom, we've got Hol Horse, user of The Emperor." The man in question raised an eyebrow before sighing and leaning back in his seat. "Arkel Lee, user of Exit—"

"Wait, who the hell was that?" Hol Horse asked after exhaling a cloud of smoke into the passing sky.

"Ah, he collaborated with Ellelle Cool Jay in an ambush against Mr. Kujo, Miss Kanao, and Mr. Kakyoin," Curt tagged in to elaborate.

"Ellelle Cool Jay..." the forgetful gunman spoke slowly. Realization sparked in his blue eyes as he guessed, "That buff wrestler guy who shouted at everyone?"

"Based on Whit's description, I'm pretty sure he's a boxer..." Michel corrected.

"Definitely don't sound like one," Hol Horse remarked.

"Please continue declaiming, Miss Stein," Whit coaxed.

"ZZ, user of Wheel of Fortune," Silva orated.

"'Zed-Zed' is a dumb name," Anne affronted.

"As I recall, you referred to him as 'a road hazard that tried to run you over with a death machine.' Surely you are not already succumbing to senility, Miss Moon?" Whit queried.

"Wait, that was _that_ guy? I thought his name was 'Wheel'?" the befuddled child wondered.

"Was Suki the only one who called him that?" Michel probed.

"Yes?" Anne responded.

"Unfortunately, she may have picked up on a habit another friend of mine has; giving people stupid names, mainly if they won't or can't introduce themselves properly," Michel sighed while scratching at her bandages.

"Moving right along," Silva spoke up. "Bim Cash, user of Tongue Twister, is also MIA."

"Huh? I thought Willy said he'd watch that guy like a hawk?" Anne interrupted loudly.

Michel perked up and turned to Whit. The questioning artist raised her eyebrows with a question on her lips. The confidential attendant raised a hand and nodded slowly. _I shall discuss with you later_, he intended to communicate with his gaze before turning back in his seat and concluding _...what I am able to divulge to you, at this point in time_.

"He's...not really keen on doing work he doesn't like," Michel answered in Whit's place. The corners of her mouth quirked up in wistful nostalgia.

"Did he break up with you?" Anne asked bluntly while turning to look at the reminiscing tailor.

"Wh-What? No, he didn't! I-I mean, we were never really _together_, formally, but—" Michel stammered as Whit seemed to become enamored with a bit of fraying skin under his bandages. "Anyways, isn't that a bit of a personal question for you to be asking?" the flustered tailor reprimanded.

"It ain't personal if it's plain as day, Miss," Hol Horse denied with another smoggy breath. "I know a drifter when I see one. You're better off fergettin' about him, seeing what other fish in the sea you can find."

"Ah, Brent Wilson, right. He's also MIA," Silva segued.

"He's probably just found some other calling," the emotional blue-eyed woman reassured herself more than anyone else. "It didn't seem like he really wanted to be involved in this Stand stuff anyhow. I just hope I can see him again so I can hand off the trench coat he wanted."

Hol Horse rolled his eyes before returning his gaze to the passing horizon.

"Who is the next entry on the list?" Whit asked tersely.

"Enyaba, user of Justice," Silva read.

"Enyaba was murdered by Steely Dan though, was she not?" the stressed bellhop interrogated.

"Couldn't find the body," Dagro possessed his older brother to huff. "Same with Steely Dan and Arabia Fats, who we would've presumed dead at first, too."

"Though, we did find Dan of Steel's body in a different spot than we expected, based on the Star Platinum-style wreckage in a random building we spotted. Hence why I kind of accidentally put him on both lists," Silva admitted with a nervous chuckle.

"Fats and the old hag are still missin', though, huh?" Hol Horse asked around his cigarette in his teeth.

"The likeliest span of events involves Dio reclaiming the bodies of the most useful Stand users," Whit deduced with a wince. "I shall spare all of you the details for the moment, but such actions would bear catastrophic results, for those users and for us."

An uncomfortable silence fell over the group for what felt like an eternity.

"Are there any other Stand users upon your list, Miss Stein?" the plagued attendant finally asked.

"Huh? Uh, yeah. Frank Moon, the user of Under My Skin. We couldn't find him." At this statement, Whit's expression grew distant.

"He's gotta be in Egypt somewhere, though!" Anne defended offendedly.

"Relax, pipsqueak, we ain't sayin' he's dead yet," Hol Horse piped up. "Your old man wouldn't just roll over and die; I know that much. Even with the odds stacked against 'im."

"We'll find him, I'm sure of it," Michel assured the concerned daughter while giving Anne's shoulder a small squeeze.

"...Thank you," the girl expressed in a much smaller voice.

"_Witz_? Hey, _Geist_!" Silva called while snapping her fingers in front of the attendant's face. Whit blinked, as if waking from a trance, before locking eyes with the blond woman. "You wanna keep listening, or are you done?"

"I am..." Whit started before clearing his throat. "I am honestly concerned about the status of those who did not qualify for either list."

"Ah, right," Silva noted while turning the page in her journal. "Aside from Mannish Boy, user of Death 13, who was left back on the coast of the Red Sea, there was...one other Stand user we found, who might be willing to ally with us after his defeat."

"Though, that isn't to say there won't be other Stand users willing to side with us," Curt switched in to add.

"I am well aware," Whit acknowledged as he folded his arms and shut his eyes. A moment passed before he opened them with a firm expression. "My plan is as follows: upon our arrival in Edfu, I shall take the plane I chartered to Japan. After the five of you have revitalized yourselves within the confines of the hotel, you will split into two separate groups. Mr. Kobain and Miss Stein, you will continue to assist the Speedwagon Foundation as reconnaissance agents, scoping out various key locations and allies of Dio. If at all possible, I would also recommend you observe his place of residence, if you can fall close enough to its perimeter."

"Yessir!" the couple responded in unison with a salute.

"As for the remainder: Miss Jackson, Miss Moon, and Mr. Horse, I request, alongside enlisting the help of the remaining Stand user, the three of you assist the main group as much as you can from the shadows, while also keeping one eye out for Mr. Moon. Are these tasks within your capacity?" Whit asked.

Hol Horse looked across Whit at Michel. He smirked widely. The wary tailor narrowed her eyes and wrapped her arms protectively around Anne. Michel seemed to weigh her options before sighing, "Understood."

"Very well," Whit agreed. "We should arrive at our destination within the next few hours. Please take great care in your missions."

"Right," the group agreed.

* * *

"Kom Ombo?" Polnareff wondered aloud as the group disembarked from the ship. The four men, two women, and canine stepped off the swaying wooden surface of the cargo vessel into a busy dockyard marketplace. Despite the sunset that dyed the sky orange, the energy of the seaside souk hardly lulled, if at all. Everywhere one looked, there were people moving listlessly about: peddlers hefting wooden crates full of wares piled high into wooden stalls, artisans stepping from behind their self-built counters to bark about the legitimacy of their merchandise, and adventurous customers—local and foreigner alike—who indulged their curiosity to approach the canopied shops.

"Do we really have time to stop here?" the exhausted Frenchman griped.

"Stop griping," Joseph chastised.

"As long as they let us ride the ferry, we can't complain," Abdul added.

"Ah, alright, so they _both '_dad' people," Mina observed with an exaggerated studious expression. Suki turned to give her friend a look, prompting the pink-haired punk to shrug and continue, "It's good to know."

The weary warrior rolled her eyes. "That reminds me, though, I need to ask you for something," Suki recalled while stepping closer.

"I will give you everything," Mina promised with a serious expression.

"Can you _not _tone it down for two whole seconds, Mina?" Suki whispered in a flustered panic.

After the crude tomboy giggled impishly, she leaned toward her friend with a hand to her ear in a comical gesture. Suki voiced her request while keeping one ear trained on the voices of her comrades.

"Man, I'm starving! Let's get something to eat!" the peckish Frenchman bemoaned.

"You're so loud," the fatigued old man sighed. He produced a packet of coffee-flavored chewing gum from his pocket and offered it to the whining silver-haired man. "Here. For now that'll have to do."

"That's for Iggy!" Polnareff complained.

"Well, don't worry about it. Just take it," Joseph dismissed before placing the small box in Polnareff's hand and walking back to the rest of the group. "By the way, where's the restroom?"

"Let's go look for one," Abdul suggested.

"Look, I'm being serious, okay?" Suki replied scoldingly to a hissing chuckle Mina gave after the awkward brunette voiced her request.

"I got it, I _got _it, I have got _everything_ on lock, you have no idea," Mina reassured.

"I'd be less worried if you had stopped after the first guarantee," Suki muttered while turning away from the punkish tomboy, "but, you remember to be careful, too."

"_Careful _is my middle name!" convinced Mina, waving to her friend as Suki ran off to join the other three men. The woman then turned her gaze up to the evening sky. _That girl is gonna be the death of me_, she thought with a soft laugh. _On the bright side, she's introducing me to some _very _interesting new faces._

Mina was snapped out of her thoughts by the sounds of tearing paper and a high-pitched shriek. Turning to the source of the noise, she spotted Polnareff discarding two strips of what looked like an old papyrus artwork over his shoulder.

"If it were real, it wouldn't rip so easily," he reasoned with a huff. "I know these things."

"Is it really that easy to tell?" Mina asked rhetorically as she sauntered over to the unimpressed silver-haired man.

"Well, it's—wait," he stopped. Polnareff looked around the area as he wondered aloud, "Huh? Where did Mr. Joestar and the others go?"

_So, this is how he ends up getting separated. _"Beats the hell out of me," Mina sighed with a shrug. "I tend to forget other things when hot people are around."

The confused man cast his eyes away for a fraction of a second before he looked back to Mina and asked "So, are you being serious about not knowing where they went, or—?"

"It's an actual weakness of mine," the flirtatious pink-haired punk shared with a straight face.

Suddenly, Iggy leapt through the air and snatched the packet of gum Polnareff had been holding. The disobedient canine took a few steps after he landed before he turned back to the robbed silver-haired man with a wicked grin crawling across his muzzle.

"Iggy?! Why you little…" growled the victimized Frenchman, his anger getting the better of him as he rushed after the canine. "Hold it!"

"Hey! Pay for this!" the devastated artisan shouted after the destructive gentleman while holding up the two split pieces of the parchment.

Mina twisted her lip slightly in thought before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her wallet. The distressed merchant's expression loosened into surprise as the sympathetic tomboy approached with several Egyptian pounds in her hand. As she placed the bills in his hand, the diminutive dealer began, "You…" The misfortunate merchant's seedy eyes glinted in recognition after studying the generous woman's face. "Aren't you—I-I can't just—?"

"Just consider it part of our loyalty program," Mina chuckled with a soft smile before waving to the richer dealer and rushing after the sprinting Frenchman. Only after the magnanimous maiden was out of sight did the merchant look down and see he had been handed more than double what his merchandise had cost.

* * *

"That stupid dog totally gave me the slip," Polnareff heavily panted.

The two had long since escaped the bouncing boisterousness of the bazaar. Exhausted, sweaty, and gasping for air, they both caught their breath on a hushed, rocky hillside. Ruined columns decorated the barren area with a sense of history and mystique, but the dusty breeze almost seemed to carry echoes of civilization if one listened closely enough.

"Well, you said it was his, didn't you?" Mina recalled between light breaths. "He was just taking what belonged to him."

"That's not…" the fatigued Frenchman sighed and focused his attention on catching his breath. After a few moments, he stood up straight and gave the area a cursory glance before turning to Mina. "…You'd be in less danger if you had stuck with the others," Polnareff stated matter-of-factly while keeping his eyes ahead.

"You know, that cute ass of yours could get kicked straight to Timbuktu and back just as easily," the playful pink-haired woman rebuked.

Polnareff cleared his throat as his cheeks grew red. "With how things have been going, that kind of thing would have an even bigger chance of happening to you," he warned.

"While I appreciate the compliment being tossed back to me," began Mina, stepping in front of the flustered Frenchman and leaning forward slightly. She placed a hand on the back of her hip that followed the poor-postured curve of her body as she continued, "I get the feeling you're calling me weak. Now, _that _is a misconception if I ever heard one." The confident lady slipped her black bat out of her bag as she took a few jogging steps back.

The concerned silver-haired man sighed, "I'm not saying you're weak, I—"

"Well, you should've thought before you ran your mouth, Jean!" Mina reprimanded with a toothy grin before rushing forward. Wielding the bat with both hands, the impulsive woman swung down towards the man's face. He caught the weapon one-handed with minimal effort. As Mina's face fell into a pout, her target gripped the bat and pulled her up.

"I was _going_ to say that I don't want to see people like you get hurt," Polnareff finished as Mina only dangled uselessly from her captive weapon.

"Oh. Huh. That makes sense," commented the prone pink-haired woman, rocking back and forth slightly in the air.

Then Mina smirked, and just as Polnareff's face contorted in confusion at her change in tone, she swung her lower body forward, wrapped her legs around the man's torso, and pressed their chests flush against each other. Polnareff's voice died in his throat, as the woman placed a much-too-gentle hand on his shoulder and leaned up to his ear. "'Cause that's how _I _feel, when it comes to people like you," she breathed in a low, intimate tone. The dense subtext of her dropping voice coupled with her intimate proximity only served to make the stunned silver-haired man's mind swim, as instinctive thoughts flooded and attempted to drown him.

Polnareff's wandering attention was only tugged from the warm, muggy space it dove when he felt something heavy and stiff connect with the side of his head. His grip had loosened enough on Mina's bat that she had been able to bring it down and attack him with it, even if the light tap hadn't been meant to leave a mark. With a light smile, Mina removed her legs from around Polnareff's body and dropped the remaining few centimeters to the ground. She took a few steps away while swinging the bat by its knob around her index finger. The woman then settled the weapon across her shoulders and turned back to Polnareff with a half-smile. "But, _c'est la vie_, as they say," she mused. "We can't really choose who fights when."

Polnareff was silent. If Mina's intimacy had submerged his musings in the foggy warmth of fantasy, her most recent statement flung his mind ashore onto the scorching sands of realism. The Egyptian winter sun suffocated and scorched his skin. When he stepped forward and something crunched under his feet, he looked down to see reflective glass shards glittering dangerously, as if in response to his attention.

After a breath, Polnareff asked, "What if they can't fight?"

Mina's expression fell as she turned fully back to the suddenly forlorn Frenchman. "I think anyone can fight, they just have to use what's around them to their advantage," she answered with a cheering smile.

"But, what if they _can't_?" he pressed.

"Like I said—"

"No, you aren't listening," Polnareff interrupted. "If someone hasn't been taught how to pull themselves out of that situation, has been completely immobilized, and is left to whatever some bastard wants to do to them, what are you supposed to do then?"

Mina blinked as she finally took note of the question being asked and how it was being conveyed. _His eyes… _she trailed off inwardly. _They look so sad. _"I don't know…" she muttered while turning away from Polnareff.

"What do you mean you don't—?"

"I don't _know_!" cried Mina, slamming her bat into the ground with one arm. "What else are you supposed to do besides think that? When she's halfway across the world, with five men you don't even know the names of? When she can't even fight with the weapon she usually uses in the way you remember? When you know…When you know she can't even fight for real…"

Mina tapped her bat on the ground. "Her brother taught her how to fight, but that…_that_…" she gritted her teeth as she hissed out, "that was _not _goddamn fighting. That was playing pretend. That was playing around with a little bird you want to keep in a cage forever, that was _not _fighting! Just…_Fuck_!" She ran a hand through her hair. Mina clenched her eyes shut and grabbed at her head harshly as she breathed audacious curses that could still be heard from where Polnareff was standing. Mina's eyes were still closed as she heard Polnareff's footsteps approach. She opened her eyes once the sounds stopped right next to her but did not turn to look at the hurt man.

"For what it's worth, I think she is learning how to fight. _Really _fight," he offered.

Mina took a long breath before looking up and meeting the Frenchman's gaze. "I hope you're right," she sighed. "Sorry if…if what I said was—"

"It's fine," Polnareff responded unconvincingly. "It just reminded me of…yeah," he finished uncomfortably. "I don't really feel like—"

"You got personal boundaries. I respect that," Mina accepted with an understanding smirk.

Polnareff had never thought that a smug expression could be worn with such sincerity, and yet, here they were. "_Merci_," he breathed.

"_De rien_," the multilingual maiden returned as she strutted towards the Temple of Kom Ombo further ahead. With a look of pleasant surprise, Polnareff followed after her.

They walked towards the intact, historical structure for several moments of companionable quiet, save for the scuff of Polnareff's dusty leather shoes and the restrained cracking of stray pebbles under Mina's heels.

"Are you alright now?" Polnareff asked while joining the woman's step as she slipped her bat back into her bag.

"Y-Yeah," replied Mina, scratching her cheek. "Sorry. I don't usually… That doesn't really happen all that often for me. I don't just explode like that."

Polnareff hummed in acknowledgement before wondering, "In what way?"

Mina stopped. She interrogated, "Did you just ask me—?"

"No, no, I didn't."

"No, I'm pretty sure you just asked me 'In what way do you explode'?" Mina grinned mischievously at the exploited Frenchman as she continued, "I _could _give you details right now, but have you ever heard of 'show, don't tell'?"

Polnareff blinked. Despite the red glow quickly spreading to his ears, he was strangely calm as he uttered, "You are without a doubt the most forward woman I've ever had the pleasure of meeting."

"Pleasure, huh?" Mina probed with a dip of her eyelashes. "Does that mean you like?"

"…Maybe," the mollified man chuckled before continuing to walk toward the temple.

Mina's mouth fell open slightly. _Oh, I'm _liking _this game_, she thought with a smirk as she fell into step with Polnareff.

The antiquated, dilapidated structure of the temple was bathed elegantly and eerily in the evening sun. The full columns that still held up the stone building dedicated to the crocodile god, Sobek, and the falcon-headed god, Horus, were still well-kept. Collections of people—locals and tourists, independent and grouped alike—disappeared avidly into the temple and meandered about the structure as they earnestly examined and paid respects to time gone by.

Mina frequently flicked her right eye to glance at the thoughtful man as they walked before returning her gaze to their surroundings. _"Trouble seems to follow him like a magnet, whenever he goes off alone," she said, _Mina mused. She recalled Suki's words as the noise of varying conversations and the lapping river waves filled her ears in her reminiscence, _I'm inclined to believe her, but I would've been wary either way. _

_On another note, _she segued internally. She let her gaze linger over the well-endowed man beside her for more than a few seconds. Mina managed to turn her wandering eye forward just as Polnareff seemed to sense her palpable stare, as he looked in her direction briefly before observing the milling visitors once more. _Not only did she say she's not making a harem with all of these men, but she's not even interested in_ this guy_?_ Mina shook her head and breathed a small sigh._ I mean, more for me then, but, even if he's taking the white knight shtick a little far, I really have to question my girl's taste in guys, if he _isn't _the one she's going for. Completely unrelated to that…_

Mina listened carefully to the footsteps of the unknown, swarthy man who had begun to trail after the both of them. He ambled along close enough to be suspicious to the two of them, but not far away enough to be considered a stalker by any onlookers. The strange, barefoot individual wore a ragged tunic, and his black hair fell over his back in a greasy, dusty ponytail. The impoverished man had a bold, chapped mouth, and thin, curling eyebrows furrowed over his deep brown eyes—like alluring twin abysses—which were focused straight ahead, as if he were staring right through Mina and Polnareff. What caught the guarded tomboy's eye, however, was the stranger's possession of a sword completely wrapped in bandages.

_That guy's been following us since I had that emotional blowout, _Mina thought while continuing her observations. _Jean hasn't said anything…he _knows _he's there, right?_

The three stopped just past several columns in front of the temple, almost reaching the entrance, before Polnareff called out the mysterious ponytailed man. "Hey. You've got some balls to attack when there are so many people around," declared the Frenchman. The threatening individual shouldered his covered blade. "It's unusual, too. You guys usually don't let us see you or attack us head-on. That's pretty manly. I didn't think any of you were like that."

_For him to make that distinction…_Mina bit her thumb in thought. _No way…He really _is_ the honor-bound warrior type? But, chivalry is dead! How the hell has he lasted for so long with that mindset?_

"Identify yourself," Polnareff commanded.

"My name is Chaka," the dusky swordsman introduced. "I am the user of the Stand which suggests the God of Death, Anubis. Jean Pierre Polnareff, I will take your life."

"'I will take your life'?" the Frenchman parroted with a laugh. "That's a pretty straightforward line. You're a tougher, more manly enemy than I thought." Polnareff turned to Mina before looking to his opponent once more. "Mina, you stay back."

"Uh, ex-cuse the fuck out of me; that isn't happening," denied the tomboyish woman, pulling her bat out as she sized Chaka up. "At the very least, I'm helping you with the fight."

"Do you not remember what I said to you not even an hour ago?" the Frenchman asked as he kept a watchful eye on the enemy.

"Do _you _not remember what _I _said?" Mina retaliated.

"I'm not budging on this, so stop trying to persuade me otherwise."

Mina took a small breath before confessing, "Look. Suki asked me to watch your back. No matter how strong you claim to be, these bastards, by her account, have the potential to be even stronger, or worse, way smarter. You're not gonna be able to see the traps any bandit has left for you from atop your noble steed, so just climb off already!"

"…She worried that much about me?" Polnareff wondered.

"Why else would she have sent me?" Mina shot back.

The Frenchman took a deep breath and squared his shoulders. "I'll just have to dispel her worries myself, then," the resolute silver-haired man declared before walking to the left of the temple's entrance. Chaka lumbered close behind.

"You…You jackass! Are you suicidal or something?" Mina shouted. "Fine! But, when this bastard starts beating your ass, and _you _forget the safe word, don't come crying to me!" She then turned on her heel and stalked off.

Once Mina got far enough away, she kicked up a heavy clump of dirt, which sprayed dust everywhere. "Bastard… _Another _fucking white knight, just like that asshole, Kyuu… Dammit…" the troubled tomboy huffed as she plopped herself on the ground. "If he wants to fight all by himself like an idiot, I'm gonna let him. People were bound to die on this journey anyway, it doesn't fucking matter," she muttered while drawing unintelligible lines in the dirt with her bat. Mina turned her gaze to the sky and leaned back against the column behind her, trying to block out the sound of metal clanging and shrieking against metal further away. "What the hell is he trying to prove, anyway?" She closed her eyes.

A few moments later, she felt a presence next to her. Opening her eyes, Mina saw Sia floating next to her. The worn-out woman raised an eyebrow at the psychedelic wraith. "What do you want, a cookie?" she asked. The Stand said nothing, but merely laid down on the ground on its stomach, its short pink and purple dress pressing under her. Sia propped its head up on her arms as she stared at its user.

"Oh, you want to be a _confidant_?" Mina asked of the Stand. The spirit grinned and finally spoke—or whatever a Stand's equivalent of vocal communication would be called; it emitted two strong beats, like one would hear from a DJ's soundboard. "Well, sucks. I don't got shit to confess." Sia tilted its head and its grin turning into a knowing smirk. "You cannot…No, there is _no _fucking way you know everything about me. I met you _today_." The Stand shrugged its shoulders without moving its arms from the ground while making a noncommittal record-scratching sound.

"It isn't really even a problem. That guy is just being fucking stupid," Mina complained while running a hand through her hair. "He has plenty of people who care about him. Why the hell would he just throw his life away?" Sia shook its head with a two-note twang of denial. "That isn't the plan?" It shook its head again with the same noise. "Well, what is it?" Sia pressed its finger and thumb together and drew them sideways across its lips. "Don't act like you know everything. There's no way you'd know him better than I do at this point." The Stand shook its head once more and pointed at its user with a laser sound effect. Mina pondered what the painted ghost was trying to say before wondering, "Me? He's like me, so I should know him better. That's what you're telling me?" the questioning tomboy folded her arms. "And, how exactly is he like me?"

Sia stood up. It then crossed her arms behind its head and tilted its hips while making sounds similar to beatboxing.

"…The fuck are you doing?" Mina asked while standing herself. "Knock it off," She stepped over to her Stand and nudged its shoulder with a palm. Sia fell back to the ground with a descending slide of notes that sounded like a synth bass. The colorful spirit looked up at its user as realization dawned on Mina's face. Sia nodded. Mina gritted her teeth. "That's…That's not—!"

A scream broke Mina out of her thoughts. Turning to where Polnareff and Chaka had once been standing, she saw signs of neither man.

_Shit, where did they…?! _wondered the alarmed tomboy. She spotted a blur of movement between the columns. Taking her bat in one hand, she rushed towards the entrance of the temple with Sia following close behind. _This guy is just a sword-wielder, right?_ Mina stopped and re-summoned her Stand. "Let's try something," she murmured before taking the large paintbrush—the size of her baseball bat—from her Stand's hands. Keeping her eye on the surroundings, watching for any more blurs of movement, Mina quickly drew an almost complete, two-meter-wide circle around where she had once been standing. _That should give me space to lure him in and trap him, but…_ Mina counted five seconds before the paint began to turn into vapor that floated through the air back to her brush. She bit her lip. _That isn't long at all_,she thought.

The punk heard a low, threatening chuckle behind her. She turned to see Chaka rushing towards her with his sword free of its sheath and brandished toward its next victim. Mina hopped backward and raised her bat to block his horizontal slice but was shocked when the tip of the blade passed seamlessly through her weapon. A moment later, she felt her stomach rip open from a thin cut having appeared on her stomach. "What the _hell_?!" she choked while falling to the ground. She guarded her bleeding stomach with one arm as she propped herself up with the other.

"You really _did _want to fight," Chaka drawled as he leveled the sword with Mina's throat. "Well, you had your chance, and now you die."

"Wait, wait, I really don't want to die!" Mina cried out in desperation. "Maybe… Maybe you could let me live." The lascivious woman trailed her free hand inward over her thigh, as she gazed up at the man in front of her, "if you took what you wanted from me…"

Mina kept up her poker face as the lifeless man showed no reaction to her offering. There wasn't even a flicker in his eyes or an offbeat breath, as if he was some sort of lifelike marionette being puppeteered on a string.

"Odd final words. _Now _you die," Chaka promised before raising the sword above his head.

"Hey, Chakster!" The two turned to see Polnareff standing tall on a broken pillar. A large diagonal splash of blood ran from the loud silver-haired man's right shoulder to his left hip, but his shirt was completely intact. The reckless Frenchman pointed at himself with his thumb as he reminded, "Your fight is with me, remember? Come and get me!"

The so-called Chakster chuckled sinisterly. "Very well, then. You die first," allowed the attacker, before running behind another pillar so quickly he blurred upon sight.

"Jean!" Mina called after standing up with a grunt.

"Mina, I'm—"

"No…No, _I'm _sorry!" she shouted in aggravation. Her face twisted as she admitted sourly, "I'm-I'm way out of my league, and I-I couldn't even see that!" She frustratedly drew a hand through her short locks as she continued, "I-I can't even protect myself, much less another person! I should've been the one to get off her high horse!" Despite her apparent irritation, she was sincere as she called to Polnareff, "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that, and I'm sorry!"

Polnareff hadn't been expecting an apology from the tomboy. With a bit more respect for the wily punk, he confessed, "I meant to say, I know I'll come back to the group alive. I'm confident in my ability to win. Even if you really wanted to help, I couldn't stand to see someone get hurt trying to protect me." He sighed as he openly contemplated, "I don't know…if I can change that about myself."

_He looks so…defeated, about that, _Mina thought. _But, is this just a show? Does he really think…_Can _he really win? Or is he…_

A deep, chilling laugh echoed across the area. Suddenly, the top half of the pillar to Polnareff's right—cut from the rest of the column below it—began to fall towards the Frenchman.

"What?!" the targeted Frenchman exclaimed. "The pillar…"

"I can do more than just pass through them!" Chaka announced. "I can cut the pillars themselves in half, too!" The villainous ponytailed man stood up on the falling debris and readied his sword, as he and the pillar descended towards the silver-haired man. "Die, Polnareff!" He roared and swung the sword down.

"Jean!" Mina cried out as she reached out in vain to the stalwart man at Death's door.

In that moment, a silver knight in armor with brilliant blue eyes and a rapier at the ready appeared next to Polnareff. The wraith brandished his weapon and directed it at a column at an angle from where he and his user stood. The blade shot off the hilt as a projectile, ricocheting off the column and landing in the side of Chaka's neck faster than an actual bullet. Blood erupted from Chaka's mouth as the column continued to fall away from the broken pillar on which Polnareff stood.

The fatigued silver-haired man leapt down from his perch just as Mina regained her bearings. "Th-That was close," the Frenchman remarked. "That's Chariot's secret technique, which not even Jojo knows about. Launching the blade like that…" he trailed off while turning towards the wreckage, "I only have one blade. If an opponent dodged that, I'd be unarmed. So, I only use that attack when I'm in real trouble."

"So, you _admit _you were in trouble?" scolded Mina, slipping her bat back into its case and walking over to Polnareff with her arms folded.

"I can't exactly control how much danger I'm in on this trip," admitted Polnareff, scratching the back of his neck.

"…Just don't get into these shitty situations on purpose, okay?" Mina muttered while turning her eyes away from the man. "If you act blind to the world around you, whether to the good things or the bad, you'll lose your sight," she advised sagely.

Mina was surprised by a broad hand settling on her shoulder. She gazed up at Polnareff with a confused expression. The somewhat sheepish Frenchman gave her a smile. "I wish I didn't make two cute girls worry so much about me," he mused.

Mina felt blood rush to her cheeks as she looked off in a different direction. "F-Fuck off, I wasn't _that_ worried," she denied while flinching away from his comforting gesture.

"If you say so," Polnareff chuckled with a dismissive wave of his hand.

The victorious swordsman then walked over to the fallen Chaka. Upon closer inspection, the impoverished local's hand was still twitching. "Well, I guess he's not dead. Definitely down for the count, though," Polnareff observed before turning to look at the dropped, half-bandaged, fully-sheathed sword a bit further away. "That's strange," he remarked as he lowered to his knees and picked up the covered weapon. "The sword's still in its scabbard. Did it just slip back in by chance?"

"Doubtful," Mina replied while squatting in front of the Frenchman. The curious Frenchman then removed the blade slightly from its sheath.

Polnareff's energetic blue eyes went wide. Something in the atmosphere seemed to shift. Mina felt a chilling sense of dread caress her spine when he spoke once more in an enamored, darker tone. "Now that I see this sword up close, it's really beautiful," he admired softly as he leaned closer to the glinting metal of the sword. "I think I'll pull it out more…" he murmured while slipping the blade out bit by bit.

Mina's fingers secured around the infatuated man's hand that grasped the hilt and shoved the blade back into its sheath without touching the antique weapon herself. Polnareff blinked, as if he had just awoken from a dream. Mina gave him a grin, betraying the panic in her maroon eyes. "Your pull-out game needs some work. Maybe practice some more before you try with a nicety like this?" she suggested.

"I was…" Polnareff started. He tried to shake the daze from his head. "What was I…?"

The two were interrupted by the sound of a dog barking. Looking up, Polnareff and Mina saw the rest of the group standing further away from the wreckage, alongside a menaced-looking Iggy.

"Hey, Polnareff. There you are," Jotaro acknowledged.

"And Mina's still with you," Suki added. Mina could see her friend's mouth moving silently to form the words, "Thank God" while she cast a brief glance to the clear sky.

"You two went off by yourselves, so we were worried," Joseph scolded. "What if the enemy attacked you?"

"Well," Mina started with an anxious chuckle, "y'see—"

Polnareff placed a hand on his forehead and groaned lowly.

"Polnareff?" the concerned old man called.

"Huh? O-Oh. It's you, Mr. Joestar," the stupefied Frenchman realized.

Mina looked from the uncanny katana to Polnareff before shaking her head. "Nope. Not happening," she refused before snatching the sheathed weapon from his grip and standing up and away from him. She hissed as her stomach sent a sharp pang of pain through her body from her sudden movement.

"You _did _fight a Stand user!" accused Suki, rushing over to Mina.

"I-I'm fine, doc, I swear," Mina muttered as she covered her wound with her arm.

"Ah-ah, let me see," Suki chided while pulling Mina's arm away. The worried brunette grimaced at the wound. "Jesus Christ," she sighed before turning to Polnareff and eyeing up the blood on his shirt. "You got hurt, too? But your shirt is…" The befuddled brunette cast her gaze from the wrapped sword to the injury on the Frenchman, and finally stopped as she looked to Mina.

"I may be new to most of this Stand stuff," Mina began while holding out the sword to show the rest of the group, "but I've got a hunch that this is why we fought anyone at all."

Upon seeing Mina present the weapon, Iggy began to growl even louder while hunkering down defensively. Suki turned to the threatened Boston Terrier as she asked, "What's got you so gripey?"

"You said he's a Stand user, too, right?" Mina asked the party about the miscreant mutt. Joseph and Abdul nodded. "His canine senses might be able to pick up on something we can't."

"Okay, can you start from the beginning so we have the whole picture?" Suki requested.

"Well…" Mina then explained what she could of the fight that had just occurred while Polnareff groggily filled in the blanks between when she left and when she had reappeared.

"He said he was the user of the Stand 'Anubis.' He was an expert swordsman, able to phase through objects and cut them. He was a powerful enemy," Polnareff concluded.

"Powerful, no doubt, but I have my doubts about who was using who…" Mina pondered as she started pacing back and forth.

"What makes you say that?" Suki asked.

"It might be completely wrong…" the wondering pink-haired punk began while rubbing her hands over her arms as if she were suddenly cold. She shot multiple wary glances at the weapon she had placed on the ground during the explanation, "but, that sword might possess people."

"Possess people?" Joseph repeated.

"And on what grounds do you make that assumption?" Abdul probed further.

"I offered him sex and he didn't bite," Mina deadpanned.

Absolute silence.

"Hear me out," Mina defended as she saw Suki fold her arms with a skeptical expression. "Okay, would you believe me if I said that that was a tactical move?"

"…Probably not," Suki muttered.

"It would take some convincing otherwise," Abdul sighed.

"_Fuck_ no," Jotaro denied.

"Well, gee, good to know you're _all _so open-minded about this kind of shit," Mina huffed.

"I think it could work as a distraction," everyone turned to look at Joseph as he defended this odd choice of strategy.

"_Thank _you, at least _somebody _gets it!" Mina sighed. "Look, no matter who you go after, if you go after anyone at all, if someone starts talking about their body in excruciating detail, anyone who hears it is _gonna _react. Lust is a common reaction, but it could also garner disgust, anger, or something else. That split second of instinctive, emotional gut reaction would've given me the opening I needed to kick the weapon out of that bastard's hand or something! But…_nothing_." The anxious tomboy shivered. "His eyes were completely lifeless, like the guy who was supposed to be in there just…wasn't."

"He could've been flesh-budded," Jotaro mused.

Mina pressed her lips together for a moment before speaking again. "I could see that, _maybe_, but then…" she trailed off as she briefly glanced at Polnareff. "When Jean tried to take the sword out of its scabbard a few minutes ago—"

"When did Chaka put it back in the sheath?" Mr. Joestar asked.

Mina blinked before continuing, "He tried to take the sword out of its scabbard a few minutes ago, and he got the same look in his eye that that bastard got. Then, he started talking about pulling it out more and—"

"And then you made a dumb 'pull-out game' joke and then we showed up," Suki finished with a huff.

"Wow, I didn't even tell you about that part," Mina admired with a grin. "We really are soul sisters, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so," the jaded brunette conceded.

"Was this thing _really _possessing that guy, though?" Polnareff wondered.

"Well, the gang's all here," Mina noted while picking up the sword. "We might as well try and see."

"Wait, Mina—" Suki called out, but her friend was already attempting to reveal the blade.

No matter how hard Mina seemed to yank on the weapon, it would not budge from its sheath. Mina was about to put the hilt between her teeth before Suki placed a hand on her friend's wrist to stop her.

"Well, what are we gonna do with this?" Mina sighed while gesturing with the covered weapon.

"I think it would be best to hand it over to the Speedwagon Foundation for research purposes," Joseph suggested.

"I agree," Abdul concurred, "At the very least, if it does not possess people, it will be out of the hands of those who could be harmed by it."

Suddenly, the sound of a low whistle, carried on the dry wind of the evening, reached the ears of the group from the docks.

"Oh, no!" Joseph exclaimed. "That's our ship's whistle! Let's hurry back. We're going to Edfu today."

"Right," Suki agreed. "We can call the Speedwagon Foundation once we get to the hotel there."

"Sounds good," said Polnareff, rubbing his head and standing.

The group then made their way back to the docks, being wary to handle the dangerous weapon with care along the way.

* * *

"_Sanctuary_," Mina sighed heavily while flopping back onto the hotel bed after dropping her sword bag and duffel bag beside it.

"'Sanctuary'?" Suki parroted with a tired smirk as she sat on the other bed in the room. "I thought that's where we just were, for you."

"Yeah, any other time it would be," the exhausted pink-haired woman agreed as she folded her arms behind her head, "but I felt like if anyone mentioned 'Stand' this or 'Stand' that one more time, I'd lose my goddamn mind. How the hell do you put up with it?"

"When you've had a Stand for almost a decade, you tend to just get used to conversations like that," the brunette replied with a minute shrug.

"You saying I have to wait for ten _years _to get used to this?" Mina gawked with wide eyes.

"I'm saying it'll just take a bit to get used to. It won't take a decade. I can tell you that much," Suki comforted softly. "I mean, Jotaro has had his Stand for a little more than a month now, and he's already used to hearing about this kind of thing."

"You and I both know he's not the end-all, be-all," Mina spat with a wave of her hand.

"He was just an example," Suki muttered.

"I may be sick of talking about them already," the boisterous batter began while running a hand through her hair, "but don't you think there's more to this than Houdini let on?"

"What do you mean?"

"'A specific set of circumstances'? Could he be any more suspiciously cryptic?" Mina asked rhetorically with a raised brow.

"Yes. Yes, he could be," the knowledgeable hero deadpanned.

"But that's not the point," Mina dismissed. She sat up and stared at the ceiling with narrowed eyes. "You've all met so many different people who _all _have Stands. Considering I only _just_ started learning about what the hell these things are, never having even _heard _of them before, I'd think they number in less than a quarter of the world's population, maybe even less than an eighth, if they haven't overrun it yet. I'm thinking it might be a little bit too convenient if all of these fuckers are users by birth, by blood, or whatever causes them to be natural-born Standees. I'm also thinking we'd be in even deeper trouble if those Stand Transplant-whatever-the-fucks were more numerous than they appear to be. Whatever the hell those 'specific circumstances' are, I don't think even those would bring out a Stand in every person who had the capability."

The brunette swallowed her surprise and chose to focus on the more pressing, chilling matter. "…Where are you going with this?" Suki asked pensively.

"Well…" Mina pursed her lips and folded her arms. "I wouldn't be surprised if that bastard Dio had an alternative method of churning out Stand users."

Anxiety wrapped around Suki like a vice. Countless routes of interrogation branched in her mind from a single, deceptively simple question: "How?" the brunette uttered almost silently.

"That's just a theory, though," assured Mina, inadvertently snapping her friend out of her thoughts. The weary pink-haired punk stretched her arms behind her head and yawned. "Anyway, I'mma catch up on the shuteye I was denied last night. You gonna do anything?"

Suki thought for a moment before speaking absentmindedly. "I might go chat with one or two of the others in a bit. Maybe talk a bit more about this Stand Transplant business."

"Okay, well don't wear yourself out," yawned Mina, lying back and turning onto her side away from Suki. "And don't do anything I wouldn't do. Night."

_I don't think that list is long… _"G'night," Suki bade.

The brunette waited for a few minutes. She listened for her friend's breathing to steady in slumber, before standing from the seat she had taken on her bed and walking out the door.

* * *

A thin trail of smoke flowed from Jotaro's lips as he looked out over the balcony at the streets of Edfu below. The quiet lights glinting in the darkness of the night slowly dimmed as the denizens of the city turned in for the evening. A few straggling citizens would hurry down the dark paths from time to time, though there were still one or two that passed by at a much slower pace, the thoughtful delinquent observed. Judging by the reactions of those still closing up shop to the songs these people who hobbled along sang, the tunes were clearly bawdy. The slurred speech of the few shambling citizens didn't help their cases when they claimed to any who asked to be perfectly capable and mature enough to make it home.

"_What could a little girl like me…mean to a _man _like you?"_

The pensive thug blinked. He took another tug on his cigarette as he attempted to suffocate the events of the previous day that bled into the morning. One by one, he shoved them out as they appeared. He instead chose to focus on the meandering people and tranquil atmosphere of the city.

"_How could I not forgive that adorable face of yours…"_

Jotaro closed his eyes and placed his free hand on the railing. He took a deep breath. He counted to five as he inhaled. He counted the same beats as he exhaled. Inhale. Exhale. Over and over again. He refused to open his eyes again until he was steady and—

"_You will let me have this… You _will _let me have this! _You will let me have this!"

Jotaro choked on his last breath before stumbling into a smoky coughing fit. He attempted to steady his breathing as the woman's spine-tingling screech echoed in his mind. As he slowly opened his eyes, he removed his hand from the railing. The sturdy metal was now decorated on one side by four troughs, each the size of one of his fingers, with the other side holding a curved, thumb-shaped indentation. Glancing at his other hand and spying the bent cigarette with the tip still ignited, the broody man sighed and put it out on the railing. Letting the extinguished roll of paper and tobacco rest in his closed fist, he took a deep breath. He leaned over the railing and stared straight down. He took a sweeping search of his body, his mind, for any semblance of that protective, life-giving presence, his name spoken no louder than a whisper.

A moment that felt like an eternity passed, with the soft breeze carrying the cool air of the Egyptian night being the only accompaniment to the man's silent contemplation.

Jotaro pulled back and stepped away from the railing as he turned his gaze to look up at the sky. He wiped the sweat that had accumulated on his brow, despite the evening chill. After a second, he sighed. "Do you ever think to knock?" the sensitive delinquent asked without turning to the presence he knew was standing in the room behind him.

"I believe valuable time to be wasted on such formalities when there are more efficient, more swift ways of making my entrance," Whit enlightened. "You have my gratitude for acknowledging my presence before I made to announce myself. Such observation skills must certainly benefit the remainder of your group."

Jotaro turned to the quirky blond man fully and walked back into the hotel room before shutting the balcony door behind himself. After walking over to the trash can and tossing the cigarette, the observant thug stood in front of Whit and folded his arms.

"You must be wondering why I have appeared before you," Whit began. "As I stated, I required to arrange for an aircraft in order to be able to complete the journey to the location of my comrade. I have done so and shall depart from this location on the morrow as the sun dawns anew; however, I found myself in possession of a modicum of free time, which I decided to consume in visiting you, Mr. Kujo."

"…I'm fine," Jotaro huffed while uncrossing his arms as he met the perplexing green-eyed gaze of the other man.

"…You're not."

The unflinching delinquent remained silent at the other man's glib statement. Whit's eerie grin was replaced with a thin, ungiving line as the attendant continued, "You may equate what occurred yesterday evening and this morning to that event which transpired between Steely Dan and Miss Kanao; however, I find myself unable to."

Jotaro's eyes narrowed.

"That is most assuredly not to say that what was pressed onto her was not awful and should not have been resolved in the way it had been. I find not a thing incorrect with how you defended her. Even so…your _body_ was not the only subject of manipulation when a similar event happened today," the sympathetic blond reasoned. Whit blinked slowly and took a deep breath before speaking again. "Acting in earnest, despite the movements of your body and the pathways of your thought process not belonging to you…it is…an experience with which I can wholly and completely empathize. And I…"

The solemn blond man gently took Jotaro's right hand in his and examined it carefully. Closing his eyes, Whit lowered himself to one knee while clutching the quiet delinquent's hand in both of his own and bowing his head. He groveled, "I am sorry. After everything that has occurred…everything that has yet to occur…that is not something you deserved. I am… I am truly, sincerely _sorry,_ Mr. Kujo."

Even in his attempts to cloud his emotions from view, to dilute them to an unrecognizable point through his steady voice, Whit's anguish shined through clear as day in that moment for Jotaro. And so, the reflective delinquent spoke.

"Jotaro," he corrected.

Whit's grip on Jotaro's hand tightened slightly as he denied, "I could not—"

"You're going to," the adamant younger man asserted. He leaned down, grabbed Whit's arm, and pulled the blond man up to stand in front of him. "You're not a slave."

"…Mr. Jo—"

"You _know_ what I meant."

Whit swallowed. He stared into the deep, blue irises of the man who he knew, if none were to act in opposition, was fated for greatness, as well as sadness, the depths of which not even future sight could analyze to completion. The attendant opened his mouth to speak a statement at the front of his mind in that moment. He caught himself and merely took a short breath, his eerie smile returning to his lips.

"I understand, Mist—I mean…Jotaro," Whit spoke slowly, as if tasting each individual syllable. Jotaro nodded before looking down. The confused blond followed the other man's gaze to see Jotaro had removed his grip from the subservient blond man's arm, but the emotional attendant still grasped the stoic delinquent's hand as if it were a lifeline. "Ah, my apologies," Whit expressed while letting go. "I must be off, then." The awkward bellhop strolled quickly to the door.

"Whit," Jotaro addressed, halting the blond man's movements immediately. The astute thug appeared to think over his words before uttering, "Don't die."

"I assure you…Jotaro," Whit promised before turning to the younger man with a smile and something besides happiness glinting in his eye, "I intend to _survive_."

Then the eerie blond man was gone. As the delinquent of few words sat on his bed and stared down at his right hand, he could still feel the phantom chill from the palms of the attendant.

* * *

Whit stared at his reflection in the hanging mirror outside the door to Jotaro's hotel room. The reflective surface had been captured in an ornate frame, alongside several paintings and other smaller mirrors.

The blond's smile was there, certainly, but not the one perpetually plastered on his face. Whit met his own green eyes for a few long moments before reeling his hand back and slapping his own cheek. His head snapped to the side from the impact. His face buzzed and burned. The frustrated man turned to gaze at his reflection again as he stepped closer. Whit took a deep breath and placed both hands on his cheeks and worked his mouth into his usual grin. Approving of his expression, the artificial man stared down at his palms. His hands shook almost imperceptibly. The plagued attendant sighed, clasped his hands behind his back, and swiveled on his heel to walk back down the hall to the entrance of the building. As he turned the corner, he blinked as he noticed Suki approach. She was walking in the same direction he was coming from.

"Whit?" the drowsy brunette called. "I thought you had—?"

"A plane to catch? Indeed, I do," the calm blond man replied. "Before I departed, I realized an object of crucial importance for only Mr. Kujo to understand. As such, I deigned to visit him."

"I…see," Suki expressed lethargically. She hesitated slightly before asking, "How, uh…How is he?"

"In his vocabulary, he confessed that he was 'fine'. Even so, I presume any attempts at comfort would be more successful coming from your person than mine."

"Glad I set myself up to go there in the first place," the brunette sighed quietly with a small smile. Her expression of contentment faded as she glanced back to the blond attendant. She wrapped her arms around herself before she replied, "I-I guess," she fumbled for her words for a moment before she muttered, "thanks for checking on him."

"You would truly express gratitude to my person?" Whit wondered while tilting his head. "Even after what transpired earlier today?"

"I just," Suki sighed through her nose. She twirled the star-patterned ribbon in her hair. "I dunno. I know you still want to protect us and all, so I shouldn't be so affected by you"—she cast about for words once more until she settled upon—"taking care of a threat. I guess I just," Suki tugged the bow by the end and unraveled it from her ponytail. She stared at the endearing fabric in her hand before sighing and shoving it into her pocket. "I guess I just never really thought we were—or never thought too much about—the fact that we were…that we were _killing _people."

"I am uncertain of how exactly you wish for me to create a rejoinder, Miss Kanao."

Suki thought for a lingering moment before responding, "I don't think I'm looking for one."

Neither person spoke. Suki tucked a lock of recently freed brown hair behind her ear. Whit tapped his thumb against the clasped hands behind his back. His fresh laceration throbbed at him under its bandages, as if it was trying to offer some sort of consolation to the fatigued brunette.

With a sigh, Suki broke the silence, "Well, hope the trip goes off without a hitch. See you later, Whit." Then she walked past the blond man toward her companion's hotel room. Whit hesitated for a few moments longer as he wondered if there truly was nothing he could offer to the weary warrior in that moment. In an act he recognized as quite unlike himself, despite having not reached a conclusion, the pensive blond man continued down the hall in the opposite direction.

_I don't know what I'm doing._

The woman knocked as she reached the door to her companion's room. She only had to wait a few seconds before the door clicked unlocked and opened. Jotaro stood in the doorway for a moment before noticing who was standing there. He moved aside to allow Suki in. The slightly perked-up brunette smiled softly at him as she entered.

Suki noticed her partner's coat was absent—probably removed and placed on a coat hanger in the closet, if she had to take a guess. The two teenagers were silent, as Jotaro pulled the covers up on the bed closest to the window and moved under them. He removed his hat and put it on the bedside table as he shuffled farther underneath the blankets. The pensive woman scratched her head before slipping her shoes off and moving to his bed. She carefully sat down on the side of it. The sensitive delinquent lay on his back and stared at the ceiling in the dim lighting provided by the lamp on the table.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're _not_ 'fine,' like you told Whit?" Suki asked under her breath.

"…Could be better," Jotaro replied with a slow blink.

After thinking for a few moments, Suki turned off the lamp, crawled under the covers, and curled up into the side of her partner. Jotaro turned onto his side to face her. The quiet woman's features slowly came into focus in the lack of lighting. The stars twinkling outside the room's window glittered brilliantly in the reflection of her eyes.

Suki brought her hand in front of her and placed it on his shoulder. Feeling his muscles tense slightly under her palm, she pulled back while keeping her eyes locked on his. She watched as he darted his eyes away for a split second before initiating eye contact again. As he gave a subtle nod, she moved her hand back onto him. She allowed her palm to trail across his shoulder, up his neck, to his cheek. As she rested her hand there, the soft-spoken man closed his eyes and let out a breath.

Jotaro opened his eyes at the feeling of something warm pressing against his forehead. His nose caught on the scent of desert sands and chocolates before he put words to what he saw. Suki had closed her eyes as well after touching her forehead to her partner's. Up close, the strain in her facial features that seemed to loosen all at once in that moment was concerningly apparent.

Suki placed her free hand on his chest. The caring brunette felt his faster heartbeat under her palm and smiled gently. She inadvertently let their noses brush as she moved again and pressed a gentle kiss to his lips.

The affectionate woman only lingered for a few seconds before pulling away, but Jotaro tugged her back towards him and roughly closed his mouth over hers. One hand trailed up to weave through her brown locks. The other traveled downward and rested on her hip for only the briefest of moments before moving inward and palming her through her thin shorts. Suki voiced a surprised moan. Jotaro took that split second where her mouth was open to shove his tongue inside. The man rolled the both of them over and pinned the lust-lost brunette to the mattress with his weight as he began his tactile claiming of her body and ran his hands over every uncovered inch of skin he could reach.

All of a sudden, Jotaro pulled away, leaving his partner a panting, disheveled mess. He ran a hand through his short, curly hair while refusing to make eye contact with the girl underneath him. After a few breaths in attempt to calm himself, having closed his eyes, the remorseful thug made to remove himself from Suki. He was stopped by the feeling of a hand on his cheek. Jotaro opened his eyes to see Suki gazing unafraid at him as she smiled.

"It's okay," she murmured before leaning up to kiss him again. Her implicit trust reached him loud and clear. It was with that statement that Jotaro was pulled back in. He yanked the covers further over the two of them as they finally made contact—not as one friend helping another, but two lovers lost in captivation.

* * *

Polnareff, Abdul, and Joseph's conversation was interrupted as they heard a rhythmic knock at the door. The stoic fortune teller walked over to the door and spotted the boisterous pink-haired woman as he opened it.

"Yo, Momo," Mina greeted while giving a small wave of her hand.

Abdul blinked, then cleared his throat. He was still quite unaccustomed to the nickname she had started calling him. "Miss Nocturn, what brings you here?" he asked.

"Is Suki here?" she investigated while trying to peek into the room.

"No," Joseph denied from across the room, "why?"

Mina clicked her tongue loudly. "Fuckin' _figures_. Fine, that's all I wanted to know, take care of yourselves," she dismissed while giving a curt wave as she walked away from the door.

"Wait, wait," she heard Polnareff call as she stalked down the hall. Mina suppressed a snicker as she heard the reckless Frenchman stumble over or bump into something with a comical yelp and a succeeding string of vibrant French curse words. Polnareff quickly caught up to the protective pink-haired woman and fell into step behind her. "What's the problem?"

"You're a grown-ass man; don't you understand what could happen if you leave those two in a room alone together?" Mina asked rhetorically.

"Who? Suki and Jotaro?" the Frenchman clarified. He scratched the back of his neck. "I mean, they're both probably a bit pent up, being horny teenagers and all. I'd probably have to bother Abdul and Mr. Joestar into staying in their room, but—"

"That ain't it," Mina interjected. Then, she took a deep breath before turning fully to the man behind her. "Okay, am I the only one who…well…fuck." She scratched her hairband.

"Take your time," Polnareff reassured.

Mina gave him a half-smile before sighing, "I…can't be the only one antsy about her dating that guy, right?"

"Antsy?"

"Well, more like…'anxious'?" Mina corrected herself before biting her thumb. "I just…don't want another situation like she had with that bitch." Seeing Polnareff's confused expression, she added, "With Kyuu."

"Oh." Realization dawned on the Frenchman's face. This realization was swiftly followed by disgust as he repeated, "_Oh_."

"Yeah."

"Oh, no, that wouldn't happen with Jotaro!" Polnareff defended.

Mina put her hands on her hips. "And what makes you so sure? You've only known him for a handful of weeks, haven't you?" she retorted.

"Well yeah, and I get where you're coming from. I'll be the first to say that Jotaro isn't without his faults." Mina folded her arms with a raised brow as the Frenchman continued, "He's stubborn and doesn't talk much, not to mention he can be really rude if you push the wrong buttons, and he can be a complete buzzkill at times."

"How long till you say 'but still'?"

"But still," the sympathetic Frenchman finally defended, "he's a good guy. He might not show it to too many folks, but he does genuinely care about the people around him. He's strong, and he's quick-witted—to an almost scary degree. I can't say for sure whether what they've got now will keep them together past this trip, but I really don't think it's anything to worry about. From what I've heard, that Kyuu guy is disgusting, and Jotaro is most definitely not."

Mina hummed in acknowledgement, before turning on her heel and continuing down the hall. "Well, I still wanna stop those two crazy kids from getting too far," she enthused. "There is no way some random guy my soul sister met on some random, gong show of a field trip to Egypt is gonna sink his claws into her virginity, not before I've given her my talk. She's gotta know _exactly _what she's getting into before she even tests the waters!"

"Uh-huh…" Polnareff agreed absentmindedly while following the mischievous maiden and casting his gaze off in a different direction.

Mina stopped cold. "Don't you tell me," the predictive pink-haired woman began as she turned a mortified eye to the Frenchman behind her. "She's done it, hasn't she?"

"The best part is it wasn't with who you think," Polnareff affirmed.

"Well, start talking, Jean-dearest: who's the thief?" interrogated Mina, turning back to the man.

"My lips are sealed," the blabbermouth Frenchman dismissed while folding his arms.

"…Well, okay then," Mina accepted before spinning on her heel and starting down the hall again.

"D-Don't you want to guess?" he wondered confusedly.

The pink-haired woman stopped short. She moonwalked back to the stunned silver-haired man and murmured over her shoulder, "How many guesses do I get?"

"I'll give you," the overt Frenchman started, "three tries."

Mina spun back to Polnareff and asked excitedly, "So, I have a chance to make a fool out of myself three times in a row?"

"_Oui_, you do," the gossiping silver-haired man affirmed.

"Well, that's great, but I think I came up with the answer already: it was that cute red-haired boy, wasn't it?"

Polnareff blinked. Then he asked, "How—?"

"Elementary, my dear doodly; I might not know you guys well enough, but I _do _know Kiki," Mina reasoned. "Considering she's probably only just learned about the ins and outs of the in-and-out, I'd say she's got pretty vanilla tastes, so she'd probably try and keep within a certain comfort zone. She might gravitate towards someone a bit more experienced, which typically comes with age, but unless she suddenly developed a daddy kink—or, Heavens to Betty, a _grand_daddy kink—she more than likely would find the age gap between herself and Gramps or even Momo to be daunting. When it comes to you, she seems to talk about you more like a family member than a main squeeze, or even a past one-and-done.

"You know, actually I think I'd be more inclined to believe the frilly boy made off with her virginity rather than Sir Dickless over there. And I'll tell you why," she continued while stopping Polnareff just as he opened his mouth, "guys like him _talk _big game, like they've seen it all, but that kid has 'virgin' written all over him. He's got good genes, I'll give him that, but they don't mean jack-squat if he ends up bitching the girl out of bed."

"Well, from what I've seen, most girls tend to just get on his nerves," the boggled silver-haired man mused with a confused expression.

Mina's eyes widened before she shook her head and began walking faster down the hall.

"Mina, you're worrying over nothing!" Polnareff called after her while trying to catch up with her.

"I'm worried over _plenty_," she snapped back.

"Wait," a third, quieter voice spoke up from behind Polnareff, "he's right."

Mina completely halted. She slowly turned to the source of the familiar voice and was met with a demure woman a few years younger than her with black curls and midnight-blue eyes. Her royal blue, long-sleeved shirt sagged over slightly gaunter arms. The blouse was tucked into a same-color skirt with a navy blue outer-layer that only made it to her ankles. A thin swath of bandages lay over her head; it was barely visible underneath her hair. Mina knew this girl—had known her for several years—but something about the way she carried herself had changed since the last time Minaj had spoken with her.

"…Mick?" Mina guessed.

"Huh," the other woman started before she gave a short, soft laugh, "you really _did _dye it. I can barely look at you, it's so bright."

"Michel," called Mina, reaching out to her friend instinctively before pulling back slightly, "sorry, you kind of…caught me at a bad time."

"I know," Michel acknowledged. She then turned to Polnareff and gave a polite nod. "Good to see you're well. I'll only be a minute." The timid tailor then gestured for Mina to follow her further down the hall.

"Now, hold the phone," Polnareff interjected. He stepped toward the blue-eyed woman as he put his hands on his hips. "You've got some nerve, showing your face around us again. Are you going to test Mina the same way you tested us, or is this strictly personal business? And how the hell did you survive that bullet to your head?"

Mina shot Polnareff a shocked look before gazing at Michel. "Mick, what is he talking about…?"

Michel slid her abyssal, night-sky eyes to the wall while pulling absentmindedly at a stray black curl. She shared, "Apparently, I wasn't the only Stand user on the coast when I got jumped. Two ally Stand users were there, and they created an illusion that made it _seem _as if the bullet had struck home. In reality, it actually only grazed the side of my head. It still knocked me out for a little while, though. As for why you were tested…" The quiet woman gazed at the two out of the corner of her eye. "Mr. Houston wanted to ensure you all had the mental fortitude necessary to take on Dio."

_She's involved with Houdini, too? _Mina wondered. _Just how fucking far does his web go?_

"Well, that's all fine and dandy," the silver-haired man observed sarcastically, "but which bastard was responsible for thinking the best way to test our 'mental fortitude' would be to incapacitate us, force us to relive sensitive memories on display for anyone who wants to watch, and pit us in fights against physical manifestations of those memories?" he interrogated while stepping toward Michel.

"What…What the hell…?" Mina gawked. She looked at Michel to find no sign of the shy girl she had befriended in the withdrawn woman's icy gaze.

The transformed tailor met Polnareff's glare as she explained, "Last I checked, incapacitation was your own fault. After all, Suki was perfectly capable of waking herself up and fighting off her nightmares long enough to escape. I would reconsider the misgivings you and the rest of the group appear to have about her strength, considering how much you supposedly _care _about her."

With that, Michel jerked her head at Mina and turned on her flat-heeled dress shoe to walk back the way she had come.

"Mick, wait!" Mina called.

Polnareff and Mina exchanged a look before the perplexed pink-haired punk pursued her pal down the hall. Just as Polnareff made to trail after her, the same two Speedwagon Foundation members—dressed in more clothes that seemed far from casual—from earlier that day came around from behind the silver-haired man, which thoroughly startled him.

"Sir, are you aware that you are a—?" the ample silver-eyed woman asked.

The black-haired man interjected, "Silva, I thought we agreed that wasn't going to be the lead-in question." He tightened the matching tie of his suit that was colored like lemon-lime stained glass.

"But, I've gotta know if he's actively or unconsciously aware that he looks like a dental instrument, Kasey!" The blond woman replied. She swayed her head and body left and right while expecting his permission. The movement served to make her pitch-dark, knee-length dress with white lace flutter in a makeshift breeze and her matching hair ribbon to bob in sync.

The befuddled silver-haired man blinked before fully registering what he had been asked. "Now just hang on a minute…" he started.

Polnareff's voice grew a little quieter as Michel led Mina further down the hall, still within sight of the Frenchman if anything were to happen.

"So…'he's right,' huh?" Mina repeated while raising an eyebrow. "That's a pretty shit opening line."

"Put bluntly, yes," Michel murmured as she ignored her friend's remark. At that moment, a Stand appeared from her figure. The spirit was coated in hundreds upon hundreds of small glass shards, like a humanoid disco ball.

"The _fuck_?!" Mina cried after taking a step back.

Michel glanced from the wraith to Mina before asking, "You can see Privacy? My Stand, I mean."

"Y-Yeah…" Mina replied in a slightly distressed tone.

The taciturn tailor's eyes softened as her mouth pressed gently into a thin line. She then turned to Privacy without a word. The Stand nodded and pulled off the black glove on its right hand, revealing a dark miasma that undulated about its palm. The spirit reached out to Mina, encouraging the maroon-eyed girl to take a step back. Michel's eyes widened. She turned to her Stand and placed a hand on Privacy's wrist. "I meant _show _her," the soft-spoken woman clarified

There was a glint of realization in the Stand's wide white eyes before it clinked embarrassedly and reached up to its waist. The reflective ghost tentatively patted its hands over its body as if it were searching for something. Finding that something on its left shoulder, Privacy took its right thumb and forefinger and plucked a tiny glass plate from that area, placed the tiny object in its left palm, and held it out to Mina. The befuddled pink-haired woman plucked the shard from the Stand's hand and eyed it quizzically until Michel directed, "_Now _you can do it." Mina couldn't whip her head up in time. She was plunged into pure darkness just as she looked up.

No matter where Mina looked, all she could see was black. Suddenly, the vibrant shard she held began to glow, filling the whole area with a blinding light. The lost woman shut her eyes until the space behind her eyelids had darkened enough that she felt safe enough to peek with one eye. Mina opened her eyes to a very small room—what looked to be a cabin on a compact boat—with a ragged couch pushed against the wall across from where the confused woman stood. On that couch sat Suki—who looked to be deep in thought—and Jotaro—whose expression was a stone wall, as usual. The insensitive thug stood up at that moment and kept his back to the girl. Mina rolled her eyes and sighed as she heard Jotaro say, "I don't need your pity. Just leave me alone."

The inexperienced delinquent turned and made to stomp past the innocent brunette, but Suki grasped his wrist and stood up behind him. "If it bothers you that much…" she murmured, "can't we talk about it?"

Mina reached out to her friend and warned, "Suki, there's no—"

"She can't hear you, Mina," shared Michel, scaring the daylights out of Mina as the tailor stepped up beside her friend.

"What the hell is _happening_…?" Mina whined while holding her head in her hands.

"I was hoping you'd gathered from Polnareff interrogating me, but my Stand, Privacy, allows me to look into other people's minds and sift through their memories. Recently, I've discovered that she can also hold records of multiple memories and share them not just with myself, but with other people," she explained. She touched her bandaged head and winced slightly. "I'm not thankful for this injury, but I'd be lying if I said it had nothing to do with my Stand's abilities developing further."

"Okaaaaaaay," Mina dragged out as she turned her gaze back to the past pair. "So, is this a memory of Suki's?"

"How would I convince you if we only saw her perspective?" Michel questioned rhetorically.

"Always with the questions, with you," grumbled Mina, shaking her head. "So, I guess it's his, then."

"Yes, now listen," Michel shushed.

"You act like I would shame you for following after fictional characters like this. Jotaro, I _respect_ you," Suki confessed. Mina could easily tell her friend was speaking from the heart when the passionate brunette continued, "Before, it was because you were even more of a hero than I could ever hope to be. If anything, I respect you even _more _now, knowing that we look up to similar role models." The girl who seemed much smaller in that moment smiled wistfully as she let go of the titan's wrist and sat back down on the sofa. "If you're still mad at me for what I did, that's okay. I was nosy. I deserve it. But, whatever or whoever you look up to…that's nothing to be embarrassed about. What you choose to do with that inspiration…well, look at what you've done on this journey. Is all of that _really _something you feel embarrassed by?"

"_I'm_ embarrassed by it; he was probably a cringy bastard, then, too," Mina commented. Michel delivered a swift jab to Mina's bandaged stomach with her elbow, knocking the wind out of her friend with ease. "W-Warn me, next time," the recovering pink-haired woman wheezed.

"Listen, next time," Michel replied sweetly.

"Ugh…" groaned Mina, looking back to the two.

Jotaro's hat covered his eyes. His expression was hidden as he mused, "You really are one of a kind, aren't you?"

The brunette closed her eyes while laughing lightly. "I guess you're still intrigued by—!"

Mina's eyes widened as she bore witness to the aggressive man quickly lowering to Suki's level and pulling her into an embrace. The hat may have stayed put for rowdier encounters, but the gaudy headwear decided to slip off the delinquent's head then and reveal his blue eyes to the two seers. "…Thank…Thank you," he mumbled genuinely.

Suki slowly reached up and embraced him back. She tightened her arms around him. "I…should be thanking you, Jotaro," she corrected softly.

Mina closed her eyes. "I…think I've seen enough," the puzzled tomboy dismissed.

"You've seen _most _of what I wanted to show you," Michel assured. "Just hang on for a bit."

The two women sat in silence for a few minutes. They silently listened to Suki quietly speak about how, even with the people around her, she still felt lonely. It was enough to shake Mina's heart, but it truly shattered when she heard her friend warble, "…I just…I miss them… I miss them so much…"

Jotaro glanced at his hat—still resting on the couch—then back to the girl in his arms. Without a word, he tightened his hold on Suki as she wept. Mina stepped over to look at the antagonistic man's face out of curiosity. It hadn't struck her when the two had had that silent conversation when he returned her necklace, but now she could see a flicker of warmth in his deep blue eyes: the only betrayal in his expression of how he felt about what was happening. That, and the deep, pulsing sound that seemed to quicken in Mina's ear.

Mina blinked and all of a sudden, they were back in the hotel hallway. Michel now held the glass shard that contained the memory Jotaro held deep within.

"Admittedly, I let curiosity get the better of me, in sifting through _his _memories in particular," the navy-eyed woman confessed with an ashamed smile, "and that was one of the most closely-guarded ones." Michel handed the shard back to Privacy, who replaced it in its left shoulder with a quiet clank before redonning the black glove on its right hand. Michel smiled. "That's why I trust him with her."

"He looked…" Mina started but couldn't finish. Michel eyed her contemplative friend. "Kyuu…he never… I never saw him look at her…not the way _he_ did…" The stubborn pink-haired woman shook her head. "Why go to all this trouble? Why show me that?"

"…A friend of mine told me you didn't have much faith in him," the timid tailor responded while casting an instinctive glance at the two Speedwagon employees further down the hall. The two individuals were boisterously asking the flustered Frenchman seemingly endless questions. "Call it an impulse, but I wanted to clear things up, even if it was just a little bit."

Mina thought for a long moment before asking carefully, "How long have you had this power?"

"Mina, I'm really sorry," Michel apologized with a defeated smile. "But, can we talk about this later? I really…_really _have to be somewhere soon."

"Alright," Mina conceded, "but I just want you to know something before you go."

"What is that?" Michel wondered.

Mina stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her younger friend. Michel tensed at the sudden physical contact. "I just…I missed you," Mina confessed. "I feel like it's been forever, and I might not be able to see you again for another little while. So…take care of yourself, okay?"

Michel was silent for a moment before bringing her arms up and returning the gesture. "Only if you do the same," she agreed.

The two friends pulled away and turned back to the trio further down the hall. Michel formed a circle with her index finger and thumb and placed them in her mouth. When she blew out, the gust of air forced a high-pitched whistle between her lips that startled Mina and immediately caused the SPW members to swivel towards her. They grinned and waved to Polnareff before jogging down the hall to meet up with Michel. Mina gave her quiet friend one more parting look and a smile before turning away to rejoin the abandoned silver-haired man at the other end of the hall.

"You alright? You look a bit shaken," noted Polnareff, his expression growing concerned as Mina approached.

"Yeah, I just…have some thinking to do…" she yawned. "Maybe sleeping on it'll help a bit."

"Speaking of sleep," the silver-haired man added with a sigh, "here's hoping Abdul and Mr. Joestar haven't turned in for the night. I'd feel bad if I interrupted something by going back to the room I'm staying in."

"I mean, you could sleep in our room, since if Kiki and her boyfriend are up to what I think they're up to, they won't be leaving that room 'til the sun rises," Mina reasoned with a half-hearted smirk.

"That's…an option, but…"

"You may be surprised to know that I'm not implying you bed me with that suggestion," the raunchy woman assured.

"Oh, thank God," Polnareff sighed.

Mina retorted in an offended tone, "Well, guess I'm sad, now! _Jesus_!"

The surprised Frenchman immediately perked up and tried to cheer the aggressive woman up with, "You can't be sad! You're too sexy!" He winked.

"Wh-Wh-Wha—" Mina stuttered. _Oh no, that's so cute. Oh no, that's so cute. Oh, no, he's so cute. Oh no._

"Are-Are you okay," Polnareff asked with a nervous laugh.

"U-Uh-huh?" the flustered tomboy confirmed with mass uncertainty. "I'm not sure what my words are anymore at this point."

Michel smiled as she listened to the banter between the two before increasing her stride back down the hall the way she had come with Silva and Curt Kobain following close behind.

"Mr. Houston did tell us that Miss Nocturn would be having a problematic relationship with Mr. Kujo," began Curt, scratching the stubble forming on his chin, "but couldn't that have resolved itself naturally as well?"

"It could have," Michel responded without breaking stride, "but remember Whit's mantra: time is of the essence."

"You sure are risking a lot, though, for a closet-girl," Silva remarked.

"Heh, maybe," Michel remarked. "You can't get anywhere if you don't risk _something_," she expressed with a small, nostalgic smile. "That's what he taught me."

* * *

The morning sunlight filtered in through the cheap blinds covering the window nearest the bed. Suki groggily opened her eyes. She raised a hand to rest over her sensitive irises. The drowsy brunette was still not ready to tackle the day. The waking woman turned onto her left side and gazed up at her partner's face. His resting expression was surprisingly peaceful: his eyebrows unfurrowed and the usual tension resting in his facial muscles gone with only a few traces. Then, Jotaro opened his eyes slowly. Suki smiled as she met his drowsy gaze.

"Good morning," she murmured warmly while shuffling closer to him. The remaining layer of clothes she wore shifted a bit uncomfortably between her legs as she snuggled closer, but she chose to ignore the odd feeling.

Jotaro responded by wrapping his arms around the woman and guiding her close to him. "…Morning," he yawned as she rested her head on his chest.

Suki ran a hand up his side with a feather-light touch. Her mind replayed the events of the previous night in a sluggish film reel as she recalled their intimate interactions.

Everything had been…slightly awkward, at first. The fact that it was so dark made it difficult to keep track of where the other was. Even if Suki had done this kind of thing once before, figuring Jotaro out and finding what he liked was a completely different state of affairs and on Jotaro's side, well…he hadn't exactly done this kind of thing before. At all. It didn't interest him before.

"_Before_,_"_ Suki recalled his use of the word and a brush of crimson dusted her cheeks.

The way he had touched her felt uncertain, contrary to the rest of his actions. Perhaps it was because of the darkness falling over the room, maybe it was his own inexperience, maybe he still looked at her like a fragile China doll when it came to these kinds of interactions; regardless, his hands were gentle, but firm as they trailed along her skin. Even just the sensation of his fingers tracing between her legs and drifting across the thin fabric had electricity coursing along the length of Suki's spine. She was more than willing to give him suggestions as to where exactly to touch her, if it meant feeling his skin meet hers again. The excited woman distantly recalled the one other time she had done this and—swallowing her instinctive guilt—noted that she was much quieter with Jotaro. She was _definitely _no less pleased with their interactions, though—quite the opposite.

Meanwhile, Jotaro's body had been…softer than she had expected. Most of his toned muscles were as ungiving as she had expected, but as her fingers trailed between some areas, even with otherworldly strength and abilities, she realized more vividly than ever that his body was still human. The part of him that he had denied her access to before—but finally allowed her to touch last night—most certainly did _not _line up with that statement. Even being slightly daunted, she kept going. She reveled in the restrained, quiet groans she pulled from his throat with the way she moved her hands. When she stroked his body in one specific way, she was startled by his strained whine. Her surprise quickly shifted into something more primal and it took all of her restraint not to slam her hand on the light switch. After all, neither person had reached for the lights at any other point in order to purge the darkness of the room.

Nevertheless, even if they could connect—incompletely, as that hadn't been the time—just fine in the dark, Suki had wanted to see her lover's face as he came undone. It would most likely be something Suki would remember for a while, something to subdue the image of—

_Stop. Why am I thinking like this? _she wondered guiltily.

After taking a breath to collect her thoughts, the daydreaming brunette cast her eyes up to meet with Jotaro's again. Concern laced her gaze in an unspoken question. The sensitive man brought up a hand and ran his fingers through her soft hair. He settled his palm against the back of her head as he recognized, "It was...nice."

Suki smiled up at him. "Thank you, Jotaro." The man of few words quirked an eyebrow. The conflicted brunette cast her eyes away. "Just...thank you."

The discordant woman leaned into him again. She was fully prepared to spend what little free time they had that morning doing whatever they—

The thin door banged open.

"I'm here for the _suck_!" Mina crowed after strutting into the room. The two teenagers—upon sitting up and releasing each other—realized they had heard nothing of a door unlocking, but they _had _been distracted. The intrusive pink-haired punk tilted her head. "What, you actually _mind _if I watch?"

Suki took a pillow from behind her head and chucked it at her nosier friend. Mina made no effort to block it as it landed squarely in her face before flopping to the floor. "Fine, fine, I'll leave you two _to it_, then," the vulgar tomboy suggested with a shrug. Then, she turned on her heel and sashayed out the door as quickly as she had come in.

"We should…get dressed," Suki suggested.

Jotaro merely nodded as he and the humiliated brunette stepped out of bed and began to prepare for the day ahead.

* * *

"I kind of regret letting Mina into your room this morning," confessed Polnareff, falling into step with Suki down the dusty street with the sheathed sword in hand.

"'Kind of'?" Suki repeated with a raised eyebrow. _She can do a lot of things, but picking locks isn't one of them. Somehow, that's reassuring,_ she sighed inwardly.

"Well, she said she wanted to wake you up if you were still asleep, but I didn't think she'd do it _that _way," the regretful silver-haired man muttered.

"I feel like that kind of thing should be expected of her at this point," the bitter brunette huffed.

Mina cleared her throat heavily, as if she was trying to cough up her lungs. "I am right. Here," she announced.

"…That's the joke," Jotaro replied glibly.

Mina leveled a sneer at the thug before turning her eyes forward and stretching her arms behind her. "Nice day to practice adulting without any training wheels, though, I must say," she observed.

"You know you're an adult, too, right, Mina?" Suki asked absentmindedly before pointing left as she glanced again at the directions she had been given by Abdul. "Left turn here."

"What's your point?" Mina responded.

Polnareff looked over Suki's shoulder at the list of directions to the rendezvous point. "So, we're looking for a barber shop that's still being used as the handoff point for this thing?" he wondered while gesturing slightly with the covered weapon. The antique blade's gemstone-accented scabbard glinted eerily in the morning sun.

"The shop is run by one guy, and anyone can keep their mouth shut for the right price or the right set of words," Suki explained. "I wonder, who would be the ones qualified to deal with such a potentially dangerous item, though?"

"Let's just hope they're well worth Gramps and Momo's trust, huh?" Mina suggested.

"If they can trust them to be with us while they check the route the boat is taking at the docks, we should be fine," Suki assured.

"Speaking of," the Frenchman began, "how come you didn't tell us those two loonies were working for the Foundation, too? That Curt guy and the pretty blonde woman…Silva, right?"

"I found out about that pretty much an hour before you guys did, honest," Suki defended.

"Man, but they hid that so well, though. They made it seem like they had _just _joined up with the organization," Polnareff mused.

"Yeah, how about that, huh?" the aware brunette woman acknowledged with pursed lips. _Yeah, "seem," _she thought.

They rounded the corner onto a much more sparsely populated road. The barber shop was supposed to be in sight, according to the directions. Jotaro spotted a small shop set up in the open air off on the opposite corner of the street. After a moment of observation, he looked to Mina and caught her gaze. He then jerked his head in the direction of the shop before walking towards it. The puzzled pink-haired punk gave Suki a quizzical look.

"Can he just not use his words on a regular basis, or…?" Mina muttered.

"Oh, just _go_!" Suki chided while giving her friend a small shove in that direction. Mina scoffed and reluctantly followed the heat-resistant delinquent over to the stall. Once her friend was far enough away, the brunette sighed, "Jeez…"

"I hear you," Polnareff echoed the sentiment. He folded his arms and stopped beside Suki. "Let's hope they can work themselves out and we can stop worrying about one of them biting the other's head off."

"One of them?" Suki repeated.

"Well, more like I want to stop worrying about Jotaro accidentally stepping on a landmine. I don't mean to be rude, but Mina seems to, uh, get testy, pretty suddenly," the Frenchman recalled.

"Oh, she blew up at you?" the brunette wondered with recognition lacing her tone.

"Not really _at _me, but…" Polnareff scratched the back of his neck as a hint of guilt crossed his face. "I think something I said made her really upset."

Suki hummed in acknowledgement before replying, "That happens sometimes with her. I know it's like you to worry, but since she might be around for a while, you might need to get used to that."

"…Alright," Polnareff nodded. A few moments passed in companionable silence before the silver-haired man spoke up again, "Hey, Suki."

"Hm?" The brunette turned to the Frenchman with a questioning look.

"Is Mina—? Well, does—" Polnareff started as his cheeks grew red and an embarrassed smile crossed his lips. "Does Mina have a—?"

Before Polnareff could finish his question, Suki felt someone shove her harshly to the ground. Turning back and looking up, she saw a young, scrawny Egyptian man with a predatory gleam in his eye looming over her. Before her comrade could even shout in protest, Suki shifted her weight and swept her leg under her attacker. The aggressive man fell to the ground with a yelp. She moved towards him while pulling her knife out of her pocket. She narrowed her eyes as his widened. "You wanna try that again?" she threatened.

In that time, another man—older and more physically fit than the first—rushed by Polnareff while grabbing greedily at the expensive-looking weapon in his hand. The partner looked surprised by the brawny Frenchman's unyielding iron grip on the sword, but the comparatively smaller man refused to let go.

"Hey, stop!" Polnareff shouted while pulling on the other side of the sword. Realizing he wasn't getting anywhere with just one hand, the frenzied Frenchman gripped the hilt with his other hand.

The sword slid out smoothly from the scabbard with a loud ringing noise that echoed across the empty street. The second attacker fell back with the scabbard in hand. Polnareff suddenly straightened. He kept his back to Suki as he examined the weapon in his hand before turning slowly—almost with a predator's confidence—toward the second man. With a quavering whimper, the second man dropped the sheath and scrambled backwards before clambering to his feet and sprinting down the road. The first attacker, seeing this, shrank back slightly.

"P-Polnareff…?" Suki called quietly. As the swordsman in question turned back to her, the brunette took a startled step back.

Mina had been telling the truth. There was nothing human in Polnareff's blue eyes as he stared her down. At that moment, Suki was nothing: just another body standing in the way of something that couldn't be controlled.

"Suki Kanao…" the _thing _using Polnareff's body drawled as his lips were pulled up in a sinister grin. "I, Anubis, will kill you where you stand."

* * *

**Chapter Nineteen - Of a Bachelor**

**-END-**

**|To Be Continued|\|/**

* * *

**ENDNOTES (for translation!)**

**_Spötter_** – German word, means "scoffer," "mocker," "satirist," "wit"

**_Schnuckiputzihasimausierdbeertörtchen _**– German term of endearment, means "cutie-pie-bunny-mouse-strawberry-tart"

**_Eine _**– German word, means "one" or "an"

**_Evolutionsbremse mit Hosenscheiße _**– German insult, means "pants-shitting 'evolutionary brake' (an unintelligent person whose entire existence hinders the advancement of the human race)"

**_Bananenbieger _**– German insult, literally translates to "banana-bender," refers to someone who is engaged in a pointless task, can't concentrate, or has no direction in life

**_reisender_ _Dummkopf _**– German insult, means "traveling idiot/moron/stupidhead"

**_Kampfdackel_ **– German insult, typically reserved for dogs, means "fight dachshund," refers to "an annoying canine that thinks it's a Doberman or Great Dane when it barely reaches up to its owner's knee"

**_Liebling _**– German term of endearment, means "darling"

**_Mikrofon _**– German word, means "microphone, mike, transmitter"

**_witzig _**– German word, means "funny, witty, humorous"

**_Witz _**– German word, means "joke, wisecrack, wit, jest, gag"

**_Geist _**– German word, means "spirit, mind, ghost, intellect, wit, psyche"

**_Merci_ **– French word, means "thank you"

**_De rien _**– French expression, equates to "You're welcome" or "No problem," literally translates to "of nothing"

**Cliffhanger ending, in classic JoJo fashion. I plan on releasing the following chapter within the next few weeks, but definitely before February (It's still due for some edits, after all)! I hope you all look forward to it!**

**Special thanks to SquirreLJ for writing the Brent v. Whit fight scene! I had a hand in a few bits of the dialogue, but that was mostly his writing, and it won't be the last time we'll be seeing his stellar choreography in this series! He's assisted me through writing the next chapter's fight as well, plus his addition to this series-Coffeehouse of Memories-also has plenty of clever brawls that use Stands in ways that go beyond imaginative! Please, consider reading his work as well, I wouldn't have gotten as far in this story as I have if it wasn't for his insightful edits and his contributions to give fights between certain characters the love, care, and jaw-dropping action they deserve!**

**Thank you for sticking with this incredibly longwinded series, I'm proud of the improvements the story and characters have seen this year, and I hope to continue this development of my writing in the year to come to make better content for all of you guys.**

**I wish you all a very happy holiday, and a great new year! -BlueBow**


	5. Chapter 20 - Anubis

**WARNING: This story contains instances of graphic violence, gore, coarse language, and sexual content. A warning will exist at the beginning of a chapter containing anything explicit, and will be sectioned off by another warning right beforehand, and another line right where the explicit scene ends. You have been warned.**

* * *

The stalwart quartet—consisting of Suki, Jotaro, Polnareff, and Mina—rounded the corner of the Edfu street onto a less populated road; according to the directions, the barber shop should've been in sight. Jotaro spotted a small shop set up in the open air. After a moment of observation, the soft-spoken delinquent looked to Mina and caught her gaze. He then jerked his head in the direction of the shop before walking towards it.

The pink-haired punk gave Suki a quizzical look. "Can he just not use his words on a regular basis, or…?" Mina muttered.

"Oh, just _go_!" Suki chided while giving her friend a small shove in that direction.

Mina scoffed and reluctantly followed the rough-edged hero over to the stall.

The shop had oddly diverse wares, most of which would fare better under a roof of some sort. Perhaps it was but a relic of the small building in shambles behind the elderly merchant with the inviting smile. At that moment, though, there were more important things to worry about from Mina's perspective. Namely—

"So, how many different ways did you two do the deed last night?" she probed without a hint of tact.

Jotaro acted as if she wasn't even there as he subtly sized up a simple yet sophisticated black cloak with a large hood. He attracted the shopkeeper's attention without a word—waving him down and speaking with him in quiet, semi-broken English.

"It's rude to ignore people, you know," Mina chattered while fidgeting with one of the feathers sewn into her hairband. Jotaro breathed a heavy sigh before adjusting his cap and handing the elder a few bills—much to the merchant's delight. "If I'm annoying you, you can just tell me, and I'll stop. Just talk like a _normal _person, and—"

"Shut up," snapped Jotaro, throwing the shawl her way. He clearly didn't mind that this cut her off and blanketed her face. "Wear that."

Mina huffed as she removed the cloth and examined it with a skeptical eye. "Uh, why?" she asked. "Why get me this?"

"You stand out too much," the curt delinquent observed simply while shoving his hands in his pockets, "and—"

"_I _stand out too much?" Mina exclaimed incredulously while gesticulating with the dark apparel. "At least I don't go around wearing gaudy, functionless baubles that only serve to get in the way. Unless multiple belts and a clunky chain are your way of telling the world that you're a kinky bastard," reprimanded the noisy tomboy as she pointed at him. "Plus, ripped clothes are only cool if they don't look like they're assimilating into your body. Get that hat fixed before—"

"I wasn't finished," interrupted Jotaro, glaring at the pink-haired punk. "The cloak's an offering."

"An offering?" Mina parroted with a raised eyebrow before narrowing her eyes. "Stop pussyfooting around the subject. What the hell do you want?"

"Good grief," Jotaro muttered with a sigh while tugging at the rim of his hat. He returned his hand to his pocket and cast his eyes away as he insisted, "Just leave her out of this."

"Leave…?" Mina followed the trail Jotaro's eyes had taken to Suki, who still stood off to the side while she spoke with Polnareff. "What do you mean, 'leave her out of this'? She's dating you, I doubt that's really possible."

"What you're doing…" For a split second, the thug's eyes seemed to soften as he looked to the brunette before freezing into a cold glare once more as he turned back to Mina. "It's bothering her."

The protective tomboy took a step back and grit her teeth. "So, what, are you gonna step in, then?" she accused.

Jotaro took his hands out of his pockets and shook his head.

The boisterous batter's eyes narrowed as she stepped toward the thug. "You don't know her. You don't know _anything _about her," she hissed. Mina grabbed Jotaro by the collar of his tank top with her free hand and dragged him down to her level. "How do I know you're not gonna just take from her?"

Jotaro stoically retained eye contact with Mina, as he replied, "You don't."

Something flashed in Mina's eyes at that statement. She let the cloak slip from her fingertips to the dusty street. The simmering punk carefully reached back with her now-empty hand and opened her sword bag—her grip closing around the handle of her bat—as she continued to hold the delinquent still.

Suddenly, the two heard screaming coming from where Polnareff and Suki were standing. As Mina and Jotaro looked to the other side of the street, they spotted the reckless fencer brandishing the strange sword they had picked up yesterday. Another man Mina had never seen before was pressed against the wall of the building in fear as Suki slowly stepped backward away from her possessed friend.

Mina met Jotaro's eyes for half a second before shoving the immovable thug away and removing her weapon from her shoulder bag.

The possessed Polnareff advanced toward the brunette with a predatory gleam in his lifeless eyes. Suki snatched up the scabbard just as the threatening fencer's dulled irises flicked to it. His eyes narrowed at the wary girl as she continued to retreat from the preying swordsman. The thief pressed against the building seemed to finally realize that the dangerous swordsman didn't want anything to do with him, as the scrawny man scrambled to his feet and bowled Suki over. The soft-eyed hero yelped and accidentally tipped a full urn as she struggled for purchase. The contents of the container spilled across the ground behind her.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll give me that scabbard, Suki," threatened Anubis, taking a step closer to the woman.

_Just a little further, and his back will be exposed to Jotaro and Mina, _Suki thought. She let a twitching smirk tug up her lips. "Hey, I'm just a dumb kid. Who's to say if I know what's best for me?" she wondered while pulling herself back another few centimeters. _Or, I could maybe—_

"Don't even think about throwing the thing," the ancient Stand advised. "I'll cut you faster than you can toss it. I know you've been dragging yourself away slowly so you can expose my back to the others, but that won't work, either."

Suki paused. Despite the coiling dread in her stomach, she kept eye contact with the monster puppeteering her friend's body. She dimly felt sweat coalesce on her right palm.

"The last time I fought, I was unaware of the full scope of my surroundings and my opponents' abilities," Anubis recalled. "I may not have battled you before, but something like your Knight of Cups' power won't be able to lay a scratch on me."

The prone girl's breaths grew shallow as she stared down her opponent. She grit her teeth. Her overdriven mind couldn't find a single scrap of any sort to help her out at this point in time.

Suddenly, Suki nearly choked on a breath as she felt her right arm sink into the ground. Darting her eyes to the right, she saw water—trailing from the knocked-over urn—pooling around and submerging her limb.

"What are you doing?" Anubis interrogated.

"…Making a sandwich," Suki deadpanned. She met Mina and Jotaro's cautious stares for a moment before returning her gaze to the antagonistic swordsman.

"I don't have time for these stupid games, child," the enemy spat while raising the blade above his head.

"It isn't a game, Anubis," the vulnerable heroine menaced. "My Stand has been adapting since we landed on the Egyptian coast. If I were you, I wouldn't come any closer—unless you want a bullet through your skull."

"What?" the possessed Polnareff asked incredulously. And yet, he hesitated.

"I can transport things through bodies of water. I set up a handgun in the hotel room before we left, just in case we ran into trouble. I can pull it out of that water and into my hand, easily," Suki fabricated.

Anubian Polnareff blinked once. Then he laughed, "There's no way you could kill me, even if you wanted to. You don't have the guts."

"Oh, really?" murmured Suki. A dark shadow crossed her face as she asked, "You think I couldn't kill someone, if I _really _wanted to? Info must travel slow as a slug here in Egypt, because you don't even know." A sharp inhale through her nose was the only evidence of a truthful reaction the weary actress gave as she stared Death straight in the eyes and claimed, "You don't even know that I watched my friend get blown to smithereens for the sake of our cause. You don't even know that _I'm _the one who ended N'Doul. Oh, no, letting people die, killing them myself; _nothing_ is out of the question for me."

The antagonistic swordsman's weapon was still raised—poised to strike at any moment. But, even with the lack of humanity in his eyes, Suki could sense his hesitation.

"So, God of Death, how will you feel…when death is staring _you_ in the face?!" Suki shouted as she ripped her arm out of the water.

Anubis immediately brought the sword down in a defensive position. His eyes darted to the heroine's right hand. It was empty. In that moment, he felt a heavy metal object smash the back of his neck. The possessed fencer turned quickly—sword brandished to attack. The enemy Stand user only caught the trail of a red hairband before feeling a swift strike, which forced him to stumble away from his target. Turning back around with a grimace, Anubian Polnareff laid eyes on Mina. The boisterous batter laid her black bat across her shoulders and spread her legs wide in a low stance as her left arm hung loosely at her side. Mina sneered as she held the line while Jotaro placed Suki on her feet several paces behind.

"What's the plan?" asked Suki, allowing her shoulders to slump only slightly as she kept her eyes trained on Polnareff.

"Go to the docks; find the old man and Abdul," answered Jotaro, giving the weary warrior a once-over. Suki wasn't hurt, save for a few scrapes on her palms, but she seemed unaware of the fact that she was shaking slightly.

Sensing her friend's concern—almost telepathically—the aggressive punk called behind her, "Don't you worry, Kiki. I only need to fight a guy once to know if he can tussle properly. Your boy might know all of jack and shit about being a good bedmate, but he can scrap like the best of 'em."

Suki raised an eyebrow at Mina before shaking her head and turning to Jotaro. She mumbled, "I know I'd be of more help going to get the others right now, but," the anxious knight's eyes seemed to search Jotaro's for something as she continued in a whisper, "you don't have..."

Jotaro reminded, "I've managed without him before."

His partner's eyebrows shot up in realization before her eyes drifted to the ground. She nodded slowly.

Jotaro paused for a moment as he examined the heroine in front of him. He then stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. The contact encouraged Suki to look up at him. "We'll come back to you," he promised.

Suki's body relaxed slightly. The weary warrior clutched his hand in hers. Her eyes were pleading, "_Please_ be careful," but she knew the words didn't need to be spoken. Instead of saying anything, she pressed her lips to his fingers and held his hand grasped in hers against her bowed forehead, as if trying to offer a prayer. A moment passed before she let her eyes drift up to Jotaro's again. Only when she saw a light tinge of red dusting his cheeks did the gravity of what she just did hit her.

"Uh, um..." the kindhearted knight fumbled audibly as she released her partner's hand. She looked between Mina and Jotaro as she stammered quickly, "G-Good luck be back soon!" Then, she was dashing off to the docks—sheath in hand.

"Keeps blindsiding me…" muttered Jotaro, readjusting the brim of his cap before turning back and facing down his brainwashed companion. He walked up to Mina's side as she sighed quietly.

"You really do like her, huh?" she wondered with a note of wistfulness in her voice.

Before the soft-spoken delinquent could answer her, the enemy Stand user lunged toward them. Mina and Jotaro adjusted into defensive stances as Polnareff swung the sword at them.

Mina lunged in front of Jotaro—bat at the ready—and swung high from the right. Anubian Polnareff blocked with his cursed blade, but the batter easily recovered and spun around, aiming for his right leg. The enemy blocked once more, causing Mina to lean back and shove the head of her bat towards his abdomen. The bludgeon ricocheted off the flat of Anubis as its wielder held the blade in front of the targeted area.

"Cursed or not, you're just a guy with a sword!" shouted Mina, preparing another backswing, "I don't need a Stand to kick your ass!"

As the bat bounced off the sword once more, the possessed Polnareff reeled back his arm and swiped the weapon at Mina. The confident tomboy brought her bat up to block, but as the blade neared her—

"Get back, idiot!" was the only warning Mina received before feeling a tug on her hair sharp enough to yank her several centimeters back from the blade. Jotaro had stepped beside her to pull her away as Anubis phased through her bat and the sword tore the delinquent's left side open.

"Tough luck, Jotaro," quipped Anubian Polnareff, reveling in Jotaro's hiss of pain, "You won't see the rest of this fight through with an injury like that! Why don't you—"

The enemy's taunt was interrupted by the sound of Jotaro's fist smashing Polnareff's nose.

"Good grief," Jotaro sighed as the possessed man backpedaled from the blow.

"D-Dude..." Mina trailed off. Her eyes widened as she observed her rescuer's wound. "Y-You got hurt, what the—"

"Shut up," the rude thug deadpanned as he placed a hand over the cut. "'S fine; bring out your Stand. Hand the bat over."

Mina blinked. She glanced back at the enemy before handing the bludgeon off to the calculating delinquent. With a breath, the punkish tomboy called out Sia and accepted the brush from her Stand. Just as the possessed Polnareff lunged forward, Mina brought up her new weapon to block. As the blade ricocheted off, the punk ducked and flattened the tip against the ground, beginning to draw a line. Anubian Polnareff turned to swing his sword at Mina but was interrupted as Jotaro rushed forward and swung the bat at his face.

Blocking heavy swings one after another, the enemy only noticed the woman reappear out of the corner of his eye in the middle of the road as a canvas appeared in her hands with a flash of light. Her colorful Stand produced a smaller paintbrush for her user to brandish. Mina dragged it haphazardly across the white surface before tossing it towards the circle's center. Observing the powerful thug glance at the circle briefly, the possessed man grimaced before retreating out of the circle, just as the painting landed where he once stood. The picture began to glow a bright white, sucking in the knocked-over urn within the circumference Mina had painted. As the circle faded, so too did the glow from the canvas, revealing the urn to have been sucked into the painting. Mina swore audibly as the possessed Polnareff's eyes widened. Realizing he was almost standing beside that urn in the painting, he growled and dashed towards the woman. Mina readied her brush in defense as Jotaro moved to swing at the man's feet.

"Silver Chariot!" called the berserk gladiator, leaping over the metal bat as he tossed Anubis into the air. Just as the medieval knight was summoned, the Stand caught the blade in his free hand, brandishing both swords in an "X" shape before thrusting the blades toward Mina. The punk stood her ground as she defended.

Despite her attempts, the twin blades of the armored warrior were too swift for her to block as each successive thrust seemed to be followed by three more from the other direction. Shallow holes and cuts surfaced along Mina's skin as she gritted her teeth. Sia emerged from Mina's figure as a particularly savage thrust flew towards her user's stomach. The multicolored wraith caught the rapier with one hand, attempting to parry the other sword with her other hand, but only succeeded in receiving a deep cut along her right palm; a mirrored injury cropped up on Mina's hand. Jotaro knocked the cursed blade upwards with an ascending swing from the bat, but the Stand refused to let go of the sword.

"Stay _out _of this!" the possessed man commanded as Silver Chariot swung Anubis in a wide horizontal arc. Before the heroic thug could move back, the metal bat was knocked from his hands and sent flying through a window across the street. He met Mina's concerned, tired look with a glare.

_I'm nowhere _near _fast enough…_ Mina thought, as the enemy turned back to her with swords at the ready. _But maybe...Maybe…_ She looked to her Stand, and white eyes met her own. The two nodded before Mina passed the larger brush back to her Stand. Silver Chariot came rushing in with even faster thrusts, but Sia, paintless brush in hand, was able to block the onslaught.

The possessed Polnareff noticed Jotaro approaching out of the corner of his eye. As Jotaro rushed forward, the confident fencer turned; his Stand mirrored the movement. Before he could voice a taunt, Silver Chariot's head snapped to the side from the heavy impact of Sia's bludgeon making contact, knocking off the headpiece of the Stand's suit of armor. With a menacing growl, the possessed Stand—brandishing both swords anew—whipped back around to face the painted Stand, as the user eased up to Silver Chariot's back and blocked an incoming hook from Jotaro. Stand and user stood back-to-back as the possessed Polnareff matched Jotaro with fists, blow for blow. Silver Chariot continued his barrage of blades, against which Sia defended and counterattacked upon picking up on a rhythm, as if the Stand herself had grown with bat in hand.

"You would beat your own friend to death?" asked Anubian Polnareff. His lips twisted in a menacing grin as he ducked under Jotaro's jab.

"No, I'll knock him out," asserted Jotaro, hooking Polnareff in the stomach with his left fist. "That's all I have to do to take down the Stand."

"You think it will be that easy?" the enemy probed before delivering a swift punch to the open wound in the brawling thug's side. A grimace was the only sign of pain he showed, as Jotaro kicked out his leg and swept the boastful berserker off his feet.

Meanwhile, once Sia managed to knock both of Silver Chariot's arms up, she lunged in—aiming for the knight's abdomen. The knightly Stand released a hiss of compressed air before the breastplate of its suit flew forward, knocking away Sia's hands.

"You should have thought more about that blow to the back of the head! Who knew I could remove my armor and be _faster_?!" cackled Anubian Polnareff, rising to his feet as Silver Chariot swiftly glided around the colorful Stand, blades poised to strike at Mina.

The overwhelmed tomboy sucked in a gasp before hurtling backwards, retreating from the weapons. Her back hit the wall. Anubian Silver Chariot reeled the cursed blade back and swept it forward. As Mina covered her head and ducked, the sword soared over her head and sliced diagonally through the building. The sound of crumbling foundation echoed across the empty street. The punk looked up and back at the wall; her eyes widened just in time to see the upper floor of the shop come crashing down on her. Jotaro cursed under his breath as the possessed man laughed.

"What was it you said? You only have to knock out the user to take down the Stand?" the opponent recalled while Silver Chariot drifted back over. "I know you can't use yours, by the way. If you were going to save it for a critical moment in the battle, that would have been it. Looks like you really couldn't have saved the poor girl, even if you had wanted to," Anubian Polnareff huffed a sigh. "It's a shame, too. I would have liked to have compared my strength to that of the great Star Platinum before I took your life."

"...Who says you're gonna take my life?" Jotaro asked.

"Pardon me?"

"You're quite the powerful Stand, I'll give you that," the soft-spoken thug admitted, "It's almost terrifying how strong you are. But, it's no match for the Joestar Secret Technique."

"Oh, really?" The possessed man grinned as he put his hands on his hips. "Well, let's hear it then."

"The Joestar Secret Technique is simple, really," Jotaro stated with a smirk. "And that's to…"—the thug turned on his heel and began to sprint away from the enemy Stand user—"run away!"

"You coward! _That's _your big plan?!" the possessed Polnareff shouted after him. His voice was already fading in the distance as Jotaro turned into a dark alley.

The agile thug took turn after winding turn in the narrow pathway before finally stopping at a dead end. As Jotaro caught his breath, he stared down at his left hand, drenched in blood from holding his wound closed. _Alright...I should be good to— _The battered delinquent's thoughts were interrupted as he heard the sound of something metal ricocheting off of the brick wall. That was the only warning he received, milliseconds before a sharp, thin projectile pierced his back. His breath caught in his throat. Jotaro turned his gaze to his back, his eyes widening as he recognized the blade now protruding from his body. The delinquent fell to his knees before crumpling completely to his stomach.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" a voice echoed around the corner. Jotaro looked behind him, meeting the icy gaze of Anubis, using Polnareff as a mouthpiece. "I know because he killed me with that attack. Sadly, my aim isn't as good as his, so you'll have to die a little slower," he drawled. The possessed swordsman walked up behind Jotaro and yanked out the blade, smirking at the delinquent's pained grunt.

Jotaro began to crawl on his elbows away from the possessed Polnareff as the influenced fencer stalked after him with a dark chuckle. The bleeding delinquent raised himself slightly upon reaching the far end of the path, backing against the wall as he panted.

"Lucky for me, he happened to mention that not even _you_ knew about that move," recollected the possessed man, handing the rapier back to Silver Chariot as both swords were brandished once more. "I guess the Joestars' 'secret technique' doesn't stand up to an actual trump card."

Anubian Polnareff raised the cursed blade to Jotaro's throat; the tip was just shy of poking a hole in his windpipe.

"Now then, any last words before I end your pathetic life?"

"...Yeah," huffed Jotaro, coughing slightly before meeting his possessed companion's gaze. "I wouldn't be so sure about what you just said."

"Haah?" the enemy asked while narrowing his eyes.

"You might wanna take a closer look around you before you end me," Jotaro suggested.

"Wha?" Anubian Polnareff looked about, turning to each wall, inadvertently pulling back the blades.

"At the ground, dumbass," Jotaro advised as he slowly rose to his feet.

As the enemy looked down, he saw he was standing smack-dab in the middle of a circle drawn with blood. "Y-You…!" Anubian Polnareff was stunned.

"Mina, _now_!" Jotaro commanded.

"Shit!" hissed the opposing Stand user, turning to look back at the path he had reached the dead end from.

Despite Jotaro's shout, no one came.

And yet, that knowledge came to Anubis too late, as Jotaro rushed forward and delivered a right hook before the enemy could regain his bearings, then a left hook. "_Ora_!" shouted Jotaro, throwing a heavy uppercut into Polnareff's jaw. The blow sent the possessed fencer's body careening upwards before he landed on his back. As the Frenchman's consciousness winked out, so too did Silver Chariot— Anubis hitting the ground with a loud _thunk_.

"Fucking _finally_…" sighed Jotaro, staggering forward slightly to kick the blade farther from Polnareff's pliant hand.

"Hey, jackass, where the hell'd you go?" Mina's voice echoed quietly off the walls of the dank alley.

"Over here," Jotaro called back while biting back a groan as he moved.

Mina appeared around the corner, quickly spotting the soft-spoken delinquent and sighing. "Jesus fucking Christ, what the hell?" swore the tomboy. She trotted over to the battered thug, despite her numerous cuts and stab wounds—staining her dark skin with a crimson watercolor—and the clumps of blood tangling in her hair—to the point that it was difficult to tell where her red headband ended and where the blood began. "How the hell…" breathed the exhausted punk, stopping and staring down at the unconscious Polnareff, "did you know that would work…?"

"I learned everything I needed to know when I saw Suki trick him," Jotaro explained with a smirk. "He's an idiot."

Mina took a moment to process these words. She eyed the bloody circle on the ground before a smile turned up her lips. She couldn't help laughing. Despite himself, Jotaro huffed a quiet chuckle, before the sting of his wounds shut him up.

"Man, Kiki's gonna have a heart attack when she sees you," sighed Mina, shaking her head.

"Not if she sees you first," the ill-mannered thug shot back.

"Might be hard to believe, but I've come out of worse. This is nothing," Mina assured with a shrug, wincing after she moved. "Sweet of you to worry, though."

"'M not worried," denied Jotaro, his injuries subduing his reflexes to conceal his face.

Something seemed to glint in Mina's eyes as she smirked at the rough-edged hero. "Really, now?" she asked.

Their conversation was cut short as they heard groaning coming from behind them. Both sets of eyes moved to stare at Polnareff as he finally sat up.

"Where…Where am I?" the befuddled fencer wondered as he looked about. "What are we doing in this dingy alleyway?"

"Well, you see, Jean," Mina began, "you decided you wanted to sneak off with me, but—"

"You got possessed by Anubis. It's all over now, though," the exhausted thug explained with a cough. Mina turned slightly to glare up at Jotaro. Her expression softened as she noticed the mental fatigue in his eyes. It seemed to have taken a large chunk of his remaining energy just to explain the situation.

"Really?" Polnareff asked. His expression grew ashamed. "I'm…so sorry."

"What's done is done," dismissed Mina, crouching down to the reckless knight's level. "We're just glad to have you back. Just…maybe don't go touching strange swords anymore."

* * *

"Jotaro! Mina! Polnareff!" Suki cried upon seeing the three exit the alleyway. Joseph and Abdul followed the worried heroine close behind. She grew more concerned as she came close enough to see Mina and Jotaro's wounds as the bruised Frenchman helped them walk. Her expression darkened as she noted the stoic delinquent looked to be seconds away from falling unconscious and that the pink-haired punk desperately fighting off an urge to wince. She covered her mouth with a hand as her other tightened into a fist.

"Oh, God," breathed Joseph, finding his own words where Suki couldn't. "What the hell happened?"

"We'll explain later," sighed Mina, pulling off of the fencer as he continued to shoulder Jotaro. She stepped to the side of the entrance to the alley. "Sword's in there, we couldn't exactly carry it since…well…y'know."

"Hopefully the Speedwagon Foundation member will still be at the rendezvous point," Abdul mused.

"It's only been ten minutes; of course he'll still be there," Joseph reassured.

"Alright, then," Suki piped up after she steeled her expression with deep breath. She brandished the scabbard like a weapon as she insisted, "Let's go get that sword."

As the resolute heroine moved to the alley entrance, Abdul and Joseph behind her, she stopped cold upon seeing something in the darkness. The pink-haired punk quizzically looked down the alleyway. The tomboy's maroon eyes widened as she spotted a small boy brandishing the entire weight of the cursed sword.

_But that's impossible…! _Mina thought. _T__here's a dead-end that way! We would have passed that kid if he came in the same way we had…And I definitely would have noticed if someone was hiding among the garbage lining some of the path…_

Mina spotted the glint in the child's eye as he turned to face Suki at the end of the alley. The blade shimmered in the darkness as he raised it over his head. The kid smiled wildly and threw the weapon in a straight shot for Suki's chest. The aggressive tomboy couldn't stop her feet as she rushed for her friend

"_Get down!_" shouted Mina, shoving Suki out of the way, the blade so close she could hear it whistle through the air.

A loud squelching sound reached Suki's ears. Against every instinct, the apprehensive heroine hesitantly turned around to see Anubis embedded in Mina's left eye. The sword had not entered any further, as Sia had been summoned and had caught the blade between her palms. The next sound Suki heard was Mina's voice, screeching in agony as she fell to her knees.

"_Minaj_!" cried Suki, reaching for the woman. The other members of the group rushed to her side with horrified expressions. _Wait,_ the brunette thought as she stopped her hand just shy of the hilt,_ wouldn't this—?!_

"Don't _touch _it!" Mina hissed. The injured tomboy pulled at her eyelids to prevent the blade from cutting anymore of her head as Sia slowly but surely maneuvered the weapon out.

Blood dribbled from her mouth, as a pained, muffled noise echoed in her throat. Every passing second served to further tense up the rest of the group, before, finally, the weapon clattered to the ground. Mina closed her remaining eye and tipped her head back as she panted heavily. Exhaustion finally claimed her, and she fell forward.

Suki caught Mina before she hit the ground. The distressed girl gently brought the pink-haired punk's arm across her shoulders. She glanced from her friend's frightening injury to the deep cut and stab wounds almost disabling Jotaro. No more words needed to be spoken about where the group needed to go next. Joseph quickly shouldered his grandson, without a word of complaint, while Suki stood up gently with Mina at her side.

Meanwhile, Abdul took the scabbard from Suki and slid it onto the bloodied sword. He nodded to Polnareff, a gesture to request accompaniment. The concerned fencer looked to Suki, then Jotaro, then finally Mina, before breathing a small sigh and nodding back to the stoic fortune teller. The other two watched Abdul and Polnareff walk away with the sword for a few moments before turning. The hospital seemed like miles away, as Joseph and Suki silently ushered their comrades to receive medical attention.

* * *

The fifth time Suki passed Joseph in her pacing across the hotel room, he interrupted whatever train of thought she was pursuing. "Relax," he reassured, "the doctors said Jotaro would be able to leave by tomorrow, and Mina shouldn't be too far behind."

"I know," sighed Suki, flopping back onto the foot of the other bed. She absentmindedly reached toward the sleeping Iggy—curled up on the edge of the bed—and scratched behind his ears. He voiced a pleased grunt and curled up further while the heroine let her thoughts wash over her. _Even so, this wouldn't have happened if…maybe I could've… _She narrowed her eyes as she stared at the ceiling.

"You worry like an old housewife," Polnareff teased with a half-hearted smirk.

The weary warrior rolled her eyes. "Says the guy with the Stand who's openly brooding," she muttered with a slight gesture to Silver Chariot. The knightly spirit sat hunched over in the corner of the room—much like a scolded child—as he scratched nonsensical patterns into the wall with his rapier.

"Chariot, what did I tell you about drawing on the walls?" Polnareff reprimanded. The silver Stand let his sword-bearing hand droop as he turned to gaze ashamedly at his user. The guilty fencer sighed and slumped back further into the shelf against the wall.

"There's no use wallowing over what's already been done," Joseph advised as he flexed the fingers of his prosthetic hand.

"I can't help it if this kind of thing happens _every time_," Polnareff groaned while pinching the bridge of his nose. "It doesn't matter if I'm by myself or with other people; someone keeps getting hurt!" No one responded to his claim. He continued after a sigh, "I know you guys don't want me to go off on my own, but at this rate—"

"Don't you finish that sentence, Polnareff," Suki admonished as she pushed herself into a sitting position.

Before the volatile dandy could voice a retort, Mr. Joestar sternly warned, "If you think the worst he could do to you is kill you, you're wrong. He's more likely to use you as a guinea pig in that Stand Transplant mumbo jumbo he's wrapped up in."

The stubborn fencer insisted, "But, then—"

"Polnareff," Abdul interrupted amidst his broken meditation. "Dio has enlisted the help of people and creatures with abilities beyond our wildest imagination. It is wishful thinking to believe any of us would escape every battle unscathed."

Despite the stoic fortune teller's need to look up to meet Polnareff's gaze, his words were not rendered weaker. His amber eyes reflected an uncharacteristic solemnity as he asserted, "Your life is no less important than mine, than that of anyone else here. Don't forget that."

Polnareff was silent for a few moments. Abdul rose from his seat against the wall and stepped toward his beleaguered ally, but the fencer raised a hand to stop the concerned fortune teller's approach. "Okay, okay," Polnareff sighed. "I won't run off aimlessly."

"Please, don't," the fiery fortune teller implored.

"Okay! I get it!" Polnareff conceded. "_Zut alors, _it's weird hearing you act so polite toward me."

"Have you ever thought that I choose to respond in kind, Polnareff?" Abdul asked.

"Well, yeah; why else would you be responding kindly if you hadn't decided to?" the Frenchman wondered.

"That isn't—" Abdul stopped and sighed. "There are more pressing matters to attend to. Specifically, the matter of Anubis.

"With the sword now in the custody of the Speedwagon Foundation, we have one less problem to worry about. Not to mention, if they carry out the research I requested before we face Dio, we may gain an unprecedented advantage over him," the stoic Stand scholar explained as he stepped closer to the rest of the group.

"Research?" repeated Suki.

"So, you _did_ go through with asking them about that," Joseph mused.

"Indeed," affirmed the fortune teller, folding his arms. "Ever since Polnareff and Mina claimed that the sword could possess people, I had been pondering whether or not the blade itself was both Stand and user. Anubis, as we now know it to be, allows itself to be wielded by whomever it deems worthy. As a result, the wielder gains a new, powerful ability, whilst Anubis acquires a new vessel through which to express its power." Abdul made eye contact with every other person in the room before asking, "Does that sound at all familiar to you?"

"Is Anubis...a Stand Transplant?" Suki asked with a grave expression.

"Wait, I thought Stand Transplants had to be attached to your body to make them work?" Polnareff queried.

"Exactly, hence why my theory is not that Anubis itself is a Stand Transplant, but that it was used as a base for their creation," Abdul explained.

"Branching off that, Dio made it so you don't have to be possessed by a glorified kitchen knife to use another power alongside your own. Makes enough sense," Joseph mused.

Suki let her eyes drift to the ground as she hummed in thought.

"Is something wrong, Suki?" Abdul wondered.

"Well, Whit told me a bit more about Stand Transplants yesterday morning, after the meeting at the oasis," she confessed with a slight wince. "It seems like some shred of the original user still exists in the bonded object. Whit has voiced thoughts and feelings before that I don't think he would've come up with on his own. Then, when we brought up the life of the original user of the Stand Transplant Mina originally had, she reacted strangely. I could tell she was battling with something in her head, but how would it have gotten there if she didn't know the user personally? It's just a hunch, but it feels likely."

"Did you know this original Stand user, Suki?" Joseph asked.

"...No," denied Suki, rubbing her eyes with her thumb and forefinger, "I never did."

"Well, hopefully the Speedwagon Foundation will shed some light on this," Polnareff expressed while turning his gaze to the window.

"They agreed to examine the blade and its abilities with trained professionals in controlled settings. It shouldn't be long before they get back to us with some results," Abdul assured.

"What to do for the rest of the day, then...?" Polnareff wondered.

Abdul sighed.

"Why don't you go play with Iggy? You two seem to get along great," Joseph suggested with a smirk.

Iggy, as if sensing the intent of that statement, growled in his sleep.

"As if! I could make a list five meters long of better things I could do with my time!" the indignant Frenchman shot back.

As the two men bickered, Suki spoke up gently, "Hey, Abdul, could I ask you something?"

"Of course. What is it?" the fatherly fortune teller asked.

"When we fought Anubis today, my Stand responded differently than it has in the past few days. I think my abilities are changing again," the soft-eyed hero shared as she clasped her hands in her lap. "I was wondering...if you could help me practice?"

Abdul smiled warmly. "I'd love to help," he agreed. "I would suggest we move outside, though. This room is a bit too cramped for tutorials of that sort."

"Thanks, you're a life-saver," Suki replied and returned the smile. "Would it be too crazy to ask if we could start now?"

"Not at all," reassured Abdul as he moved to the entrance.

As Suki stood and began to follow the fortune teller to the door, Iggy's ears perked up. The uncooperative canine woke up, jumped down from his perch, and trotted after the woman. Upon hearing a short bark, Suki turned and looked to the approaching Boston Terrier with a small smile. "You wanna come, too, huh?" she asked. Iggy yipped as if to affirm and walked out the door Abdul was holding open.

"Where're you all off to?" Joseph asked.

"Abdul's gonna school me in Stand practice! Bye!" Suki called behind her as she swiftly shut the door.

* * *

"Let me school you in Advanced Applied Medicine, Houston-san," began the precocious child, pulling back from his microscope with the pill clenched between a pair of small tongs, "if you get medicine from a professional concoctor, you probably don't need to ask them to check if it's made up of what they tell you it's made up of. Don't waste my time with stupid analyses I've already performed."

"My apologies, Meguro-san," Whit expressed from the rickety stool against the wall of the dimly lit room. "However, the medication you bequeathed to me proceeded to change hands multiple times before I could reclaim it, so I felt it was a requirement to ensure I did not receive a dud pill or worse."

"'Bequeathed', huh?" the soft-eyed boy mused while placing the pill back in the bottle. He tucked a short lock of blond hair behind his ear as he continued, "Is that what you call sneaking into my space and taking important research materials behind my back when you claimed you were only here for technological purposes?"

"There—"

"—wasn't enough time," Meguro finished while waving a hand dismissively. "Look, as long as it didn't end up in the bloodstream of someone important, I'll just take the cash you gave me and run."

"Someone...important?" Whit asked.

The youthful savant leaned forward on his rolling stool and narrowed his eyes. "You _do_ remember I hadn't tested it, right? If your clumsiness ended up leading to trouble for the good guys—"

"I deny the cause of the situation being 'clumsiness'," Whit defended. "An admittedly clever individual removed the pills from my person."

"So, you weren't keeping a close enough eye on your valuable meds, and got pickpocketed," the gifted boy summarized as he examined a loose thread on his tailored-to-fit lab coat. "And let me guess: that pickpocket ended up using the Stand Inhibitor on an ally, or for their own selfish gains."

"...The former and latter are both correct."

"Who knows what could happen if the Stand is suppressed through unnatural means for an extended period of time?" Meguro mused while absentmindedly tapping the pill bottle on his leg. He sighed and tossed the container to the attendant. "Like you said, I'm an uninvolved party, so that's your problem. Now, if you don't have anything else to ask for, I have to finish quite a few commissions that came in this week. Lots of students wanting anti-stress meds for entrance exams coming up," he muttered with a fatigued glare at the tower of papers on his desk.

"If it would not be too much in the way of trouble, I would be most appreciative if you could supply my allies with those energy shots and sedatives that you mentioned were quite simplistic in creation?" the watchful attendant requested.

"...Fine. Cash or credit?"

"I find the former to be a more efficient method of payment," Whit claimed while pulling a few large-sum-yen bills out of his pocket and handing them to the child. "The lack of a 'paper trail' is extremely convenient as well."

"Right, makes enough sense," Meguro agreed as he took the cash without meeting his customer's eyes. He turned to a table across the room and scooted up to it. As the tiny savant surveyed the many half-filled flasks and beakers—propped up by action figures of various shapes and sizes—set up on the broad surface, his Stand manifested beside him.

The wraith looked fallen—ethereal; a long, deep blue cloak that covered his legs in an inky darkness was matched in color by a large hat adorning his head. Under the hat and hood sat a dark, birdlike mask with abyssal eyes. The Stand had velvet blue butterfly wings that flapped gently behind him, despite Stands' innate ability to float.

As Meguro began to mix the contents of various vials, he noted his Stand carrying a tube from one of the figures closer to the wall. "Way of Life," he scolded, "Second Edition Captain Meteor was holding that, it's probably still too hot." The dark Stand refused to budge. "Well, you've never steered me wrong before..." the precocious user sighed before taking the vial from his Stand and adding it to the concoction.

"How have you been faring, as of late?" Whit asked.

"You mean, how well am I taking the knowledge that my mother is dead?" The eerie bellhop blinked in response to the erudite boy's question. Meguro swirled the viridian contents of a flask around and around as Way of Life kept a close watch on his movements. "I've been taking it much better than before. I could barely comprehend it the first night you told me."

"And your sister?"

"You know, she wouldn't leave her room until just a few months ago. She kept getting visits, though, from one person she made friends with at school. He managed to finally coax her out of hiding all day, but now—" Meguro stopped swirling the green liquid and stared down into it. "Now he's in the hospital. It's honestly a miracle that you were able to get her to sit down and work on her devices. He's been there since late November, and Shiho's tried so hard to visit him every single day. Judging by how she's been lately, it doesn't seem like he's been improving at all. If anything, he's been getting worse." The mature youth poured the contents of the flask into an empty beaker and sighed, "I don't want Shiho to think she only hurts people. I feel like that's how she's been feeling...since the accident with Mom."

"Meguro-san, this boy," began Whit, casting his eyes away briefly before meeting the talented child's gaze again, "does he perhaps have a star-shaped birthmark on his left shoulder blade?"

The intelligent adolescent merely raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. "I dunno. I'll ask," he expressed before walking over to a slot in the wall. A notepad and pen were pinned directly next to it. He quickly scrawled out a note asking, "Does your friend have a birthmark?" in Japanese, rolled the note into a tube, and placed the paper into a plastic container within the slot. Meguro then pressed a button next to the slot, and the opening was quickly shut by a thin layer of plastic. A whooshing sound reached Whit's ears—presumably the tube ascending to Meguro's sister's room. With a small nod, the bright boy resumed working with his concoctions once more.

"Tell me something," started Meguro, finishing the identical mixture in a tenth beaker, "why did Mom leave without telling us anything?"

"Bold of you to assume I am aware of the answer," Whit chuckled. The precocious child eyed the man with a skeptical look. Whit cleared his throat. "If I were to claim a guess, if I had been marching the same road she did, I would have done so in order to guard the people closest to myself."

"It's not like we would have gone after her, though," muttered the soft-spoken adolescent, igniting the burner on his table and holding the first flask over the flame.

"Are you certain of that, Meguro-san?"

"Of course I am," the adamant youth replied without turning. "I'm only a four-year-old boy with no combat experience. The same is true of my sister. Dad doesn't even know how to fight, either. We wouldn't last a day where she ran off to."

"Perhaps not, but would you have been pondering so logically at the time of the reception of such information?" Whit wondered. Meguro didn't respond as he heated the third beaker. "You may lack in combat experience, but you thrive in the creation of drugs that could just as easily help or hinder your allies and opponents."

"Please don't call them that," the self-conscious child murmured while heating a fifth beaker.

"I shall not forget to speak of your sister, who could just as simply craft weapons and tools of surveillance for offensive and defensive measures. Your father may not have a Stand, but he also possesses extraordinary abilities in the category of negotiation and persuasion. Such a silver tongue would be invaluable among that group," Whit explained.

"...That might be true," conceded the soft-eyed savant as he poured the contents of each beaker into ten different plastic vials. "I just don't want anyone else getting involved in this Stand business. Apart from the stuff my sister and I make with ours, there's nothing but harm in working with those things."

"Your point is well-received, Meguro-san. I myself have witnessed firsthand the horrors that can be wrought with such abilities," the eloquent bellhop confessed. Meguro took a break from transferring contents to swivel toward Whit. The precocious child put his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. "However, could you not say that wielding a Stand is not so differentiable from holding a loaded gun in one's hand?" Meguro tilted his head. "Allow an explanation to be given before voicing a retort.

"Guns are frightening weapons. With just one pull of a trigger, a life can be taken or ruined for all perceivable succeeding periods. And yet, guns are not only wielded by criminals, but also by officers of the law." The sharp adolescent narrowed his eyes. Whit huffed a slight laugh. "I am well aware that laws against projectile weapons are held to a much stricter degree here than in other locales, but consider any cartoons or movies you may have watched. The likeliest scenario involving the lawbreakers holding possession of guns is that the enforcers of said law also hold them. Stands function through a similar concept, albeit a much more complex one."

Meguro's lips twisted slightly. "You make a pretty convincing argument, Houston-san," the precocious boy admitted, "I'm still not ready to involve myself yet, though. I don't want to tell Shiho or Dad about what happened yet, either. I'm...kind of scared how they might take it."

"I understand completely, Meguro-san," Whit assured with a nod. "Hence why I found it to be to the benefit of all to encounter you or your sister covertly and request services in a similar manner."

"Right," Meguro smirked while placing the final vial in a slotted box before closing the lid. Walking over to the shelf at the back of the room, the acute boy pulled out a small pack of pills before returning to the box and picking it up. "There you go," he sighed as he handed the items to Whit. "Sedatives to last one person two weeks and energy shots to last a month. Hope they work well enough for you."

"I am of utmost certainty that they will," Whit reassured.

Meguro's ears pricked up as a whooshing sound echoed off the walls of the room. The savvy youth walked over to the slot in the wall and found a different note inside. Upon opening the tube and rolling open the paper, he read aloud, "'Yeah, he's got a star mark on his left shoulder. Why do you ask?'" Meguro gave Whit a confused look. "What does—"

"I shall only tell you what you are required to hear at this point in time," interrupted Whit, pocketing the pills. He then crouched to the soft-spoken savant's level and placed his hands on Meguro's shoulders. "After everything has been completed on our end, that boy will live."

The boy's soft green eyes were wide as Whit stood and walked to the back door. Before he used Look to You, he turned and waved with a sincere smile. "I shall return with good news, Meguro-san."

And then the strange man was gone.

Meguro sighed before sitting down at the desk. He picked up two empty-handed action figures posing on the side of the desk. He looked to the limited-edition Captain Meteor in his right hand, then the knight figurine in his left.

_These heroes...Just how _will_ they fare...?_

* * *

"Suki...? Are you quite alright?" called Abdul, carefully stepping over to the soft-eyed hero half-submerged in a puddle. Well, _submerged_ wasn't the right word. The fiery fortune teller saw no sign of the upper half of her body since she delved into the water in the first place.

A few more moments passed before Suki's body twitched. Her legs scrambled underneath her—desperately trying to gain purchase as her upper body attempted to remove itself from the water.

"Oh dear, hang on," Abdul muttered as he bent over and gripped Suki's waist. She relaxed slightly before bracing her legs on the ground. With that silent go-ahead, the supportive fortune teller began to pull. As if a switch had been flipped, the rest of Suki's body rocketed out of the puddle, sending her and Abdul onto their rear-ends. Iggy, who lounged in the sun a few meters away, seemed nonplussed as to the travails of his accessories as he yawned.

"Agh..." Suki groaned while rubbing her head. "What am I doing wrong...?"

"It doesn't seem like you and your Stand are in sync," Abdul mused.

Suki summoned Knight of Cups and looked up at the watery wraith. "Knight, is everything okay? Am I doing something wrong?" At this question, Knight of Cups furiously shook her head. "Then, what's the matter?" Knight of Cups wrung her sleeved hands. The wraith then looked up to Abdul.

"Would you like me to look away?" he asked. The shy Stand nodded hesitantly. Abdul gave an understanding smile before turning his back to the two.

Even still, Knight of Cups hesitated.

"Knight, you can tell me if something's wrong," Suki assured. Her Stand looked towards her. Knight rubbed her elbow as her shoulders tensed. "No matter what happens, you're a part of me. Nothing's going to change that fact."

Knight of Cups jolted at that statement and let her arms fall to her sides. Suki smiled at her. The uncertain Stand appeared to take a breath before reaching down to the hem of her cloak and pulling up to her thigh. Suki's eyes widened.

The weary warrior had simply assumed that her Stand had had no legs in the first place. It appeared that _had_ been the case, however, considering how unnerved Knight was to reveal a plaster-white, scaled leg covered in a raised dark-blue vine pattern.

_Your...your appearance is changing, too, _Suki mused. Knight of Cups let her cloak drop back over her leg and folded her arms. "Did you think I would be upset about that?" The reticent wraith tensed. "You're changing, and I don't think there's anything we can do about it," Suki explained wistfully, "but I think we should let the people who care about us help. We don't have to flounder through this alone, okay?"

The diffident spirit seemed to ponder her user's words for a moment before nodding slowly. "Would you be okay with letting Abdul have a look?" Suki asked. Knight of Cups appeared to shake slightly but nodded. Suki stepped over to Abdul and tapped his shoulder. As the stoic Stand scholar turned around, Knight of Cups pulled the hem of her cloak up once more, this time to her knee. "She...didn't have legs before," Suki stated.

"So, your Stand is maturing in physical appearance as well as in abilities," Abdul observed. The watery wraith let her cloak drop again and wrapped her arms around herself. The fiery fortune teller summoned Magician's Red and allowed the spirit to drift over to Knight of Cups. As the avian Stand attempted to get Knight's attention, Abdul walked up to stand beside Suki. "You know, Magician's Red didn't always look like that."

"He didn't?" Suki asked.

Abdul chuckled with a nostalgic smile. "He's been with me since birth," he reminisced, "but he started his life like most birds: he was a small egg, but with tiny legs that didn't always work correctly. He could whip up embers in the air, but they don't compare to the flames he commands today."

Magician's Red reached out and took Knight's arms in his hands, causing the shy Stand to jolt slightly. The watery sleeves of the cloak sagged slightly, revealing elegant, alabaster hands that had previously been hidden. The avian Stand turned Knight's hands palm-up before closing them into fists. Knight looked up to the other Stand, as he let go of her hands and clenched his own fists in front of her.

"Stands, like people, can change," Abdul explained. "Change is a frightening thing. But, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Knight of Cups looked between Abdul and Magician's Red before nodding hesitantly. The fiery Stand grinned, giving the water spirit a pat on the head. Then, Magician's Red drifted back to Abdul and rejoined his user's figure. Knight of Cups cast her gaze to the sky for a moment before doing the same.

The soft-eyed hero smiled and turned back to Abdul. "Alright, I think I'm—no, _we're_ ready to keep going," she determined.

"Very well," Abdul said, "Let us resume."

Suki breathed deeply through her nose and placed her hands in the water again.

Several successive attempts followed, each resulting in the hellbent hydromancer making it further and further into the supposed depths of the puddle. Suki finally managed to fully submerge herself in the puddle. Only a moment passed after her success before Suki pushed herself out of the pool and collapsed onto her back.

_Okay...I gotta do something with this launch, but what...?_ The exhausted warrior squinted at the sky as she caught her breath.

"Suki, why don't we take a break?" Abdul suggested from his position a few meters away.

The soft-eyed hero sat up. "We haven't been practicing for _that _long, have we?" she queried.

"It has been almost an hour, by my measure," the calculating clairvoyant stated.

"Alright," Suki sighed. She stretched her arms above her before propping herself up on her hands. She resituated herself to face the hotel and shifted her gaze up to Abdul. The stoic scholar walked over to the building's wall and sat down in front of it before exhaling a long breath and closing his eyes. "Five minutes?" she probed.

"Ten would be better. You shouldn't force yourself," the selfless seer advised without opening his eyes.

_Oh, right._ "Hey, Iggy! Got something for you!" Suki called as she pulled out a pack of coffee gum. The lazy dog's nose twitched as he hopped to his feet and dashed over to the weary warrior. Before she could even toss the box to him, the greedy canine snatched the candy out of her hand. He gleefully ripped into the carton with his teeth and began to gnaw on the paper-packaged treats.

"Suki, I really don't think you're helping his behavior," sighed Abdul.

"Wha—oh, uh, right," Suki muttered with a sheepish laugh. "Sorry about that."

Abdul opened his eyes and shrugged. "I did not expect this trip to be a learning experience for him, anyway. If nothing else, he might be keener on listening to commands if he's more partial to you." The uncooperative Boston Terrier snorted and began to roll around in the dust nearby as he still chewed his gum. Abdul's eyes narrowed as Suki giggled at the canine's antics. "Realistically, though, that dog is just reveling in getting the treatment he thinks he's owed."

"I mean, I never really planned on trying to bribe him into listening to me," the brunette admitted as she tapped the toes of her shoes together. "He just seemed to be having a rough time of it. I wanted to make things a bit easier for him, if I could."

The fortune teller sighed once more, but he had a hint of a smile as he asked, "You really do care for dogs, don't you?"

"Well, I try to extend the same courtesy to all animals," Suki explained as her expression fell. "After all, almost every person I've ever met here in Egypt doesn't seem to understand that animals have feelings, too. I went to Japan with my family a lot when I was younger, and after I saw how dogs were treated there, I realized not just dogs, but animals in general are just completely mistreated here."

"You're certainly not wrong," Abdul agreed as he folded his arms. "After visiting America with Mr. Joestar several times, I've definitely noticed a contrast. I've even caught one of my customers mixing broken glass into food and feeding it to homeless dogs. Needless to say, we are no longer on speaking terms."

Suki sighed through her nose and laid back on the ground. _I do have to wonder sometimes why Mama seems to favor living here over Japan...I mean, I get _why_, after seeing her in Abdul's memory, but this is just..._The kindhearted knight dispelled the thought and looked over to Abdul. "Like I said, though, it's only _almost _every person. There are a few good people who are making a difference, even if it's small. Not just for dogs, but for lots of other animals."

"You're still more partial to canines, though, yes?" Abdul asked.

Suki smiled nostalgically. "I just have a lot of good memories with dogs," she admitted. "I spent a lot of time last year helping out at this pet shop in Luxor with Mina. We made a lot of friends that way."

_Mina said she could rely on me then… How true is that now? _Suki slumped further into her crossed arms. _How true _is_ that, now?_

"Is something bothering you, Suki?" Abdul asked.

_I won't bother him with this. I'll ask him about something rational. _Casting her gaze back up to the fiery foreteller, she began, "There is something that's been bothering me."

"Well, that's certainly a problem. Do you wish to speak about it?" her flame-affinitive friend asked.

"It's not world-ending," the weary warrior reassured, "but, I realized, I don't think I've ever asked about who exactly Holly Kujo is?" The calm clairvoyant finally opened his eyes and met Suki's gaze. She defended quietly, "I'm just kind of curious what she's like."

"Hmm...perhaps I am not the best person to ask about her. I only interacted with her for a few days before she succumbed to her illness, but, even in that short span of time," Abdul reminisced as he smiled nostalgically, "I could tell she is an incredibly kind soul. She's caring of people who are hurting, even if she knows little about them, and she refuses to let those she cares about worry about her. Additionally, Mrs. Kujo—based on how she interacted with her father— can be somewhat childish at times."

"Really..." Suki muttered.

"Something that struck me is how much faith she has in her son, considering..."

"Considering...what?" asked the curious hydromancer, propping herself up into a sitting position.

"Ah, well, I've been rambling already, and this would be better heard from him rather than from me," the protective fortune teller backpedaled.

Suki made a low humming noise and looked to the ground with narrowed eyes. After a small pause, she turned her attention back to her friend. "That 'considering' part must not go too far, though, if he's all the way out here just for her sake."

"Believe me, if it did, we would not be having this conversation in the first place," Abdul explained. Suki raised an eyebrow. "You might not have met him at all, if it were _that_ bad."

"Does he call her a 'bitch'?" Suki asked bluntly. "Is that the meat of the whole 'considering' thing?"

Abdul looked taken aback. "How did you—?"

"He may or may not have called _me_ that, a couple days ago..." Suki admitted sheepishly.

"...Right," Abdul noted as he rose to his feet and began walking toward the hospital.

"Abdul, wait, _wait_," Suki called as she stumbled after him. "Hang on, you're just gonna barge into his hospital room and reprimand him?"

"What's stopping me?" he asked calmly as flames seemed to lick at his heels.

"Well, not much besides a few hapless nurses and doctors..." Suki confessed as she caught up to him. "I feel like this is something just he and I should talk about. Besides, it was just a slip-up!" _I think..._ "You don't need to get angry for my sake...or his, for that matter." Abdul stopped.

The flame-affinitive foreteller took a deep breath and turned to the kindhearted knight. "You're correct. Forgive me for that... _unseemly_ outburst," apologized Abdul, seeming surprised by his own actions.

"It's alright, I think...we're all a little high-strung right now," Suki admitted. "Maybe we should just...take a break for today? We can practice again tomorrow before we head out," she suggested.

"Sounds like a plan," the protective fortune teller sighed.

* * *

Jotaro silently stared out the window of the bland room. The stars sparkled brightly in the sky, far away from urban city lights. With a sigh, he laid back against the thin mattress, pulling the light sheet over his body. He ignored the dull throbbing in his upper back and closed his eyes.

The soft-spoken delinquent turned onto his side. A few minutes later, he shifted onto his back again and sighed frustratedly.

"Hey, go into the bathroom if you're gonna do shit like that in a shared room, would ya?" a familiar, feminine voiced snarked from the other side of the room. Jotaro opened his eyes and turned onto his left side with a slight wince as he peered at the curtain that separated his cot from Mina's. "Normally, I would suggest getting your own room, but I guess we weren't exactly conscious enough for the arrangements."

"You just woke up?" the curious thug asked.

"Yeah. Turns out getting a sword stuck in your eye takes quite a bit out of you," she huffed with a small laugh.

"...Polnareff and Suki visited a few times today."

"How were they?" Mina asked quietly.

"They were more worried about you," Jotaro responded.

"Hm. I'll just have to ease those worries tomorrow, then," the injured tomboy decided.

A hush fell over the room as Jotaro—assuming they had finished conversing—eased slowly onto his back.

"Look, I'm, uh..." began Mina, swallowing, "I'm sorry. That I was such a bitch to you. You might be a bit of a jerk, but I didn't need to go that far." Nothing was said to break the silence on the quiet delinquent's end. "God, enough with the silent treatment, already. Didn't we bond a bit today?" Mina goaded with an audible smirk. "You dork."

Jotaro growled, "Who're you calling—"

"Relax, I ain't saying it's a bad thing. It's kinda cute if I'mma be honest," she flirted. "A little bit out of my age range, though." After hissing a laugh that seemed to go ignored by Jotaro, the pink punk cleared her throat. "I'm still gonna worry about her, you know," stated Mina, her voice growing serious. "I'm always going to worry about her…but now I can worry a little less."

"Then—"

"A _little_, Romeo. It'll stop me from busting down your walls or trying to crack your skull, but a _little_ only goes so far," Mina clarified.

"Still quite a bit," Jotaro admitted after a few moments.

"Don't question me. Now, go the fuck to sleep," the punkish tomboy commanded.

"Don't tell me what to do."

"Oh-ho, you're a sassy boy, aren't you?"

"Shut up," Jotaro muttered.

"Aww, love you, too, dear," Mina snarked with a snicker.

"...Your eye, is it—"

"It's nothing new. Go to sleep," Mina stated curtly.

Jotaro sighed before turning back to the window. Sleep finally managed to take him after attempting to plan out the next day in his mind.

* * *

Afternoon light streamed through the far window, illuminating the stark white room even further. Jotaro's cot lay empty—prepared for the next injured person—but Mina still slept soundly in hers. As Joseph, Jotaro, and Suki prepared to leave, Abdul and Polnareff watched over the sleeping woman.

"I fear you might set her ablaze with how hard you're staring at her," Abdul remarked with a smirk.

"Sh-shut up, Abdul!" Polnareff's face flushed as he snapped at his companion. "Jotaro said she had woken up last night, and I want to talk to her before we leave! I just want to make up for what I did yesterday. Is that too much to ask?"

"What happened yesterday was not your fault, Polnareff. You were caught off guard. That's likely to happen, given the circumstances, no matter how prepared we are," Abdul stated.

"Yeah, but it always seems to happen to me in particular. I'm always the _least_ prepared," the reckless fencer confessed. "I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but it's like those years I spent training were all for nothing..."

"You trained by yourself in the country, did you not?" the stoic foreteller wondered.

"Well, yeah, I didn't exactly have a dueling partner of any sort."

Abdul thought for a moment before explaining, "While Mr. Joestar and I had not battled with our Stands much until recently, we spent most of our lives surrounded by different kinds of people. If you don't engage with people, how are you supposed to understand your opponent enough to be able to gain the upper hand?"

Polnareff's expression grew hostile before he sighed, "You're probably right."

"It's certainly never too late to learn, though. You've already been improving," Abdul encouraged.

"...Thanks, Abdul," Polnareff said with a sad smile. "I just hope I can keep the people I care about safe this time..." he mused quietly as he turned back to look at Mina, who still snored softly.

Abdul chuckled.

"What's so funny?" asked Polnareff, meeting Abdul's gaze. The flirty fop pursed his lips. "Fine. She's a cute girl that I might want to invite to dinner at some point," he huffed. "There. Are you happy now?"

"Very," Abdul stated with a teasing grin.

"What the hell, it's not so far-fetched for someone to like a girl they met recently, especially someone like me," Polnareff defended. "Come on, in all your years of fortune-telling, you have to have met at least _one_ girl you liked, or thought was cute!"

"Why are you suddenly putting me on the spot?" asked the fiery foreteller, casting his eyes away.

"Ah-ha! So you _do_ like someone! Well, spit it out! Who is it?"

"There'd be no point in telling you, Polnareff," Abdul replied.

"No fair! I already confessed to _my_ girl troubles, you have to do the same!" Polnareff whined.

"There is just no sating you, is there?" Abdul wondered with a sigh. "For all I know, she could be long gone."

"Sounds like she travels a lot," Polnareff commented after a moment.

"Yes. She was a frequent visitor of my shop in Khan el-Khalili. We—You could say we dated for a few months before..."

"Before...?" Polnareff repeated. Seeing all too clearly the pain in his comrade's eyes, he finished, "Before you met Dio."

Abdul nodded solemnly before sharing, "She's a Stand user as well. She's so clever; she had been freely walking about Cairo for a year or so, after all. She has to be, to have evaded Dio's clutches for so long. And yet...that monster would almost certainly claim her if he laid eyes on her. I have had no way of contacting her, so I can only hope she has continued to elude Dio."

Polnareff turned his gaze to look out the far window. "She'll be fine," he reassured. "If she survived that long, she has to be fine. I mean, you said she was cunning, right?"

"...She's not just intelligent," Abdul explained. His eyes seemed to light up as he spoke. "She's incredibly kindhearted, as well. Her spirit...enamors me. If something happened to someone like that..." The fortune teller's expression fell as he continued, "You called me a coward, before you departed to kill J. Geil. Thinking back...I may have been so upset because it was true."

Polnareff placed a hand on Abdul's shoulder. The chivalrous knight was fully prepared to reprimand the fortune-teller's self-deprecating words, when—

"That's so sad...Did it have to be when I'm layin' here?" a voice spoke from the cot. Both men turned towards Mina, who grinned impishly.

"Mina, come on, be serious," Polnareff groaned.

"I am!" defended Mina, before turning her one eye to Abdul. "Look, Momo, listen to me. I was in the same place you're in, before I joined up with you guys. I couldn't stop worrying about Kiki, and I kept calling myself weak—worthless, even—when Dio took control of me, when I couldn't help my friend more. But I come back, and what do I find? I find I had nothing to worry about—my sis is perfectly fine." The tomboy's smile became more understanding. "This gal, unlike Kiki, sounds like she has her shit together. She's fine, I guarantee it."

"Abdul, if you're still worried about being a coward back there," began Polnareff, "that just means you'll have to step it up when you see her again."

Abdul appeared to mull over those words as he looked between Mina and Polnareff.

"Did I steal your thunder, Jean?" asked Mina, sitting up slightly.

"What? No, you didn't," Polnareff denied.

"You looked like you were gonna say something sentimental before I chimed in," the pink-haired punk added.

"Then, why did you?" the flirtatious Frenchman deadpanned.

"Well, I couldn't just sit on the sidelines when you two were chatting about a cute girl. I _had_ to join in!"

"Can you not hold your sex drive down for two seconds?" Polnareff shot back.

"You're one to talk. Besides, while that sounds kinky, that ability is way too far beyond my level," rationalized Mina, closing her right eye in what could be perceived as a wink.

"Okay, I know what you mean when you say that I'm one to talk, but I feel attacked."

"Polnareff, would you prefer I leave the room? You seem to already be speaking with Miss Nocturn one-on-one, as you wished," Abdul interjected.

"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, but..." Polnareff trailed off.

"It is fine," the stoic fortune teller assured. "I'll leave you two be." Abdul stood and walked back to the door. He turned back to the pair before exiting. "And...thank you. Both of you."

Polnareff nodded, while Mina smiled, as the fiery foreteller walked out.

"So, one-on-one, eh?" Mina repeated while wiggling her eyebrow. "What'd you have in mind?"

Polnareff hesitated before confessing, "I wanted to apologize."

"For what?" Mina wondered. "Being gorgeous? I mean, I don't think that's something you should be apologizing for."

"That's not it," Polnareff explained, "but, I do appreciate the compliment. I wanted to apologize for yesterday. For letting myself be manipulated, and...hurting you both."

"And I forgive you," Mina stated glibly. "Now, can we chat about something a bit more light-hearted? Like, maybe...a date?"

"Wha—just like that?" the flirtatious fop gaped. "But, if it wasn't for me, you'd still—your eye wouldn't be—"

"I wanna tell you a little secret," interrupted Mina, leaning forward slightly. "It's real hush-hush, so don't go telling too many more people, okay?"

"O...kay...?"

Mina looked right, then left—surveying her surroundings—before leaning forward more. She looked as if she were nearly about to fall off the bed. "This eye has never worked," she confessed.

"Wh-What?" Polnareff thought he hadn't heard her correctly.

"You might have been so dizzy in love with me that you may have misheard me, so I'll say it again," Mina flirted with an impish grin. "I was born blind in my left eye. It hasn't worked, and it never will. Honestly, I count myself lucky that that's where the blade landed. No brain damage or anything that I can see," she explained while pointing at Polnareff with finger-guns.

"So, no one else knows this?" Polnareff asked.

"The only other person who knows is Kiki," Mina admitted with a laugh. "She was actually the first person to tell me I don't look at people head-on when I talk to them. I tell you, that was the revelation of the century for me, right next to discovering I'm into more than just guys. After that, I asked my mimmy and my pap to practice eye contact with me, and I've been able to get along just fine. So, I guess you could say all I lost yesterday was a little bit of blood," the punk concluded while folding her arms and nodding.

Mina added, "In terms of gains, though, I can wear that sick-ass eyepatch I always wanted to, now! Pap always told me it would draw too much attention, but really, isn't it worth it when you can both look badass AND act like a pirate? People would hear 'Yarr har, fiddle dee dee,' in the middle of the night, and they'd go bolting!" Mina laughed, and she felt a shot of glee as Polnareff laughed with her.

"...I'm gonna miss you being around," Polnareff confessed after his laughs had quieted.

"Hey hey, I'm not gonna be gone forever! If those super-elite doctors are to be believed, taking care of this should only take a few days!" assured Mina, pointing at her bandaged left eye. "I'll be back before you can even blink! ...But, I'll miss you, too." Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Come in!" the punkish tomboy allowed.

The door opened, and Jotaro and Suki walked in. "We're heading out, Polnareff," Suki announced before turning to Mina, "and, we wanted to say 'bye' one more time."

"Aww," Mina cooed before looking between the kindhearted sister and Jotaro. She smirked as she locked eyes with the quiet delinquent, "You wanted to say 'bye' again, too?"

"Tch." Jotaro pulled the brim of his hat down. He muttered, "Just don't die on your way back, dumbass."

"Duly noted," Mina agreed with a laugh.

Suki walked over to the pink-haired punk and wrapped her arms around her gently. "I'll see you soon, okay?" the soft-eyed hero murmured.

"Yeah, definitely," Mina assured while returning the gesture.

And so the group departed for Cairo once more, setting their sights on the stop along the way: Luxor.

After Mina watched the door shut behind her allies, she shuffled under her covers and pulled out the simple black cloak. She stared hard at the material in her hands as she thought, _I'll be back soon. For those bastards, there'll be hell to pay._

* * *

"...Would you like to see what she's up to?" the entrancing vampire asked. His hand hovered with purpose over a polished crystal ball.

Kyuu appeared to think for a moment before locking eyes with Dio and nodding. In that moment, a wreath of purple, thorny vines appeared on the vampire's hand—twining through his fingers and illuminating the once dark orb beneath his palm. Soon, an image began to form in the murky fog. The spellbinding brother rose from his kneeling position and walked over to view what Dio saw.

A slightly dingy hotel room appeared, centering on a bed built for one. Under the covers were two people, one of whom Kyuu easily recognized. His little sister, Suki, writhed under the sheets, pressing herself into the body of a boy he had come to be familiar with.

"Jotaro..." the sweet girl breathed, resting her head against the insolent boy's chest as she panted, "_Jotaro_..."

Jotaro silenced her whines with a firm kiss. Suki pushed back into him, tangling her fingers in his hair as she kept one arm underneath the sheets, pressing against a lower part of his body.

The picture suddenly snapped off, as Dio dismissed his Stand. Kyuu's expression was blank as he continued to stare at the ball.

"It must upset you to see your dear sister in such a state, Kyuu," Dio drawled.

"...Lord Dio, I'm not entirely sure I can process how livid I am," Kyuu stated.

"Oh?"

"On the bright side," the smaller of the two began. He allowed his colony of bees to crawl along his arm and hand as he continued, "now I'm certain of whose blood I'd like to spill." Kyuu looked up and locked his gaze with Dio, who narrowed his eyes. "Of course, I don't intend to kill him. You still require that Joestar blood to be fully realized, yes?" Kyuu brought his covered hand up and stared at the insects darting across his skin. "Bees are magnificent creatures, don't you think? Capable of building so much in so little time," He closed his hand into a fist, "as well as breaking every little fiber of something that doesn't belong."

"I remember coming across one particular tome that stated bees were associated with Egyptian royalty," Dio remarked. "Apparently, beekeeping has been quite a popular hobby since early millennia in this country."

"You would be correct, Lord Dio. The King of Lower Egypt's symbol was a honeybee as early as 3500 BC," Kyuu concurred as he smiled wistfully, "Before my sister came into my life, I would try and make hives for my bees out of clay. A Taste of Honey always seemed to prefer sticking close to me, though..."

"...Kyuu, are you quite aware of the concept of 'queen rearing'?" the self-assured vampire asked.

"Vaguely, I believe. I never researched the details, though."

"Apparently, beekeepers raise queen bee candidates in a cell building colony for about ten days. Then, those insects are transferred to small mating nuclei colonies, which are then placed into mating yards," the alluring intellectual explained.

"…Why bring that up?"

"Forgive me, I just thought that bit of information might intrigue you, is all," Dio conceded with a languid shrug.

"I feel as if you're trying to give me ideas, Lord Dio."

"Do you disagree?"

Kyuu gave himself a moment of thought. "A mating yard is no proper place for my little queen bee. Who knows whose filthy hands would lay on her then?" Kyuu wondered as he examined his Stand skittering over his arm. The bees began to buzz angrily as the livid user hissed, "Like that _neanderthal_ who _dares _to-!"

"Eyes up, Kyuu," Dio commanded. The betrothed beekeeper and his Stand immediately silenced. Kyuu stood at attention as his lord continued, "I have a new assignment for you."

As the spellbinding brother listened as Dio explained his desires, a grin began to crawl up his face.

"Do I make myself clear, Kyuu?" Dio asked.

Kyuu knelt before the vampire.

"Of course. Your wish is my command, milord."

* * *

Chapter Twenty - Anubis

-END-

|To Be Continued|\|/

* * *

**Once again, I would like to give huge thanks to SquirreLJ, not just for being a thorough, helpful editor, but also for writing most of the Anubis fight scene. I'm slowly but surely improving in fight choreography on my end, but, for the moment, if I want to give these fights the gravity and dynamism they deserve, I'm gonna need at least a little bit of help from him.**

**If you enjoy his contributions to this work, I really think you all would enjoy his Personganronpa series on Ao3. While it isn't as jam-packed with fight scenes as this story is, he creates a remarkably believable story that blends the killing game concept of the Danganronpa series and the Metaverse factors of Persona 5 into an enthralling, emotional plot with memorable characters and shocking twists that will drop your jaw! I highly recommend it if you're a fan of either series, and ESPECIALLY if you're a fan of both!**

**The rough, rough draft of Chapter 6 is done, so I hope to post that in the next couple of months or so!**

**Thanks again for reading! A big thank you to those of you that have stuck with this series for so long! **

**-BlueBow**


	6. Chapter 21 - Two of Us

**WARNING: This story contains instances of graphic violence, gore, coarse language, and sexual content. A warning will exist at the beginning of a chapter containing anything explicit, and will be sectioned off by another warning right beforehand, and another line right where the explicit scene ends. You have been warned.**

**Check the endnotes for translations to the words that aren't in English, as per usual!**

* * *

"Do you not fear death, Dr. Roses?"

The young scholar looked up from his journal to the entity wearing his face, who stared back at him with a curious smile. "I'm as afraid as any other human being," the green-eyed human defended. "I'd say I'm more afraid that I'll die without accomplishing something, though."

The creature—_Animalcule_ as Dr. Roses had perceived its name—disguised as the scholar seated itself on the crystalline ground across from the wayward academic and resumed its lethargic fiddling with a glowing device beyond his imagination. "Most of your kind would categorize the reception of a Doctor of Philosophy in geological studies with complementary anthropological studies—and at such a young age, no less—to be quite an accomplishment, I would assume," Animalcule remarked.

"I mean without—" Dr. Roses dragged a hand through his short curls with a short sigh. "I don't want to die without contributing something, without helping this world be better…"

"And you believe that sanguisuge wishes for the betterment of 'this world'?" the sage creature wondered.

Animalcule's head snapped up at the sound of something heavy scratching against the ground. Dr. Roses's eyes followed his associate's line of sight to another of its species—hooded from sight by a leathery cloak—who was preoccupied with shoving its full body weight into a much larger block of ice, which contained something colored a sickly pinkish-red color. Despite the younger creature's attempts, the ice barely scooted across the ground with each push.

The otherworldly creature snapped at its cloaked brethren with something like a light, indiscernible command. The hooded figure—it was Coqelorum, Roses finally recognized—scoffed and muttered something incomprehensible but acknowledged the order; it moved to the other side of the frozen object and began pushing it whence it had come.

"The child cannot quite yet comprehend the value of such a delicacy as the Fresh we've come across," Animalcule complained. "It is certainly a rarer commodity here than within the land of the Antarctic."

Dr. Roses sighed, "What you said before bothers me. I really don't think you give 'that sanguisuge' enough credit. He truly does want to improve humanity."

"By intumescing the limitations of the human body? By mingling with concepts that lay far beyond human reach for logical reasons?"

"He said he would take the proper precautions to ensure the most success with the fewest subjects," Roses explained before stifling a small shiver. Animalcule rolled its eyes and returned to working on the glowing, green gizmo. The doctor's eye twitched. "So what if he's a century-old vampire? He was turned as a young adult, and his intellect hasn't waned in the slightest! Ever since we first came across those murals in the UAE, he's been thinking of nothing but how human lives can be bettered." Dr. Roses folded his arms. "Besides, if something were to go horribly wrong, you would know, would you not?"

"There is truth to your statement," Animalcule replied without missing a beat. "It is simple to observe that such a commitment would weigh heavily upon a single human's shoulders. One such as the vampire has recruited multiple followers to his cause, naturally, so ignore my own digression. I would divulge all details if participation in this process resulted in the realization of your fear."

Dr. Roses smiled gently. "I know." The wayward anthropologist spared a glance at his watch. "Oh, biscuits! I'm going to be late meeting with him," he muttered before rising from his seat on the icy ground.

"Dr. Roses," the creature wearing his face called after the geologist, "would you like to make use of—"

"No need, Anima, it's just down the road," the refined doctor replied over his shoulder. "Have a good one!" he bade before disappearing down the faintly glowing corridor.

"What made you lie, Koryphaios?" the shier of Animalcule's remaining brethren wondered quietly in their native tongue while fidgeting with its tattered cloak.

"I don't recall lying, Scrupelkwidnunk," Animalcule replied in kind. "He feared his life would end without contributing any good to humanity; however, you have seen as well as I that his life as he comprehends ends today, and not without torment. Is that the quandary you face?"

Scrupelkwidnunk silently affirmed.

"Such shame is not necessary; you were of too new an age to see completely before our home—our foresight's source—was stripped," Animalcule sighed a freezing breath before pulling its hood over its illusory head. It shuffled toward the entrance to their domain and could recall with perfect clarity the events that would befall Dr. Brandon Roses after departing their makeshift home for the final time. "Losing such a useful scavenger is unfortunate; however, needs must for the preservation of the foundation of the universe. His collapse will be one of our vehicles to that balance."

* * *

"Next stop, Luxor!" the bus driver announced as he opened the door to the vehicle.

A fair-haired lady in a dark red cloak and a small, androgynous child wearing a newsboy cap and black overalls over a white shirt stepped into the vehicle. Then, an ebony-skinned woman with straight, black hair—sheltered by a beige sunhat—climbed on. Her spellbinding, midnight blue eyes almost glittered behind a pair of azure-rimmed glasses. Despite the stifling nature of the travel bag hanging from her shoulders, a loose, cream-colored tank top flowed gracefully over her form-fitting black leggings. The enchanting woman appeared to struggle with lifting a sizable rolling suitcase—about the size of a large mini fridge—onto the steps of the bus.

"Here, let me help," the driver offered. He gripped the handle of the luggage and hefted the bag up the stairs. The man wheezed as the wheels of the suitcase touched the aisle.

"Sorry about that," the mesmerizing traveler apologized gently. She smiled serenely at the driver as she handed him her ticket before moving to join the small child in the fourth row from the front. The bus driver blinked and cleared his throat, realizing he had been staring, before closing the vehicle door and, after ensuring no one else wished to board or disembark, beginning to drive away from the stop.

The uncomfortable child scratched at her shoulders through the white shirt. "Michel, how come I have to wear this itchy, old shirt? Couldn't you have sewn something up?" the youth asked quietly.

"I'm not a miracle worker, Anne. We didn't have enough time to spare," the wayward tailor murmured. "Besides, your disguise could have been a lot worse."

"I guess…" muttered the brave youth, tugging down the brim of her cap, "but, why disguise ourselves in the first place?" She looked from side to side before continuing, "You-know-who and those other guys—they think we're dead, don't they? Would they really pay that much attention to us?"

"You can never be too sure," Michel sighed before looking out the window at the passing scenery.

"Then, should I call you something besides 'Michel' if we're supposed to be 'in cognito'?" asked Anne, bending her fingers to gesture quotation marks.

"I think codenames would be a good idea," Michel agreed with a humoring smile.

"What should I call you then?"

"Well…" The tailor's eyes were suddenly drawn forward, as the young white-haired woman in the seat two rows in front of her shifted, revealing an almost imperceptible tear in her shawl.

_Unacceptable._ Michel stood and moved to the seat behind the stranger. "Uh, excuse me," she acted without thought, tapping the cloaked woman on the shoulder. The lady turned to the resolved tailor with a bored expression, sliding the sunglasses masking her gaze onto the top of her head to reveal catlike brown eyes. Michel smiled nervously. "I…couldn't help but notice that your cloak is torn. I'd be more than willing to fix it for you."

The brown-eyed woman chuckled—a low, sultry sound—before responding, "You must be desperate."

"I-I'm sorry?" Michel wondered.

"I know your game. Doesn't matter if it's a guy or a girl, someone _always _wants to see me strip," the fair-haired lady muttered with a sigh.

"N-No…" Michel denied. She cleared her throat. "That's not it at all. I'm a tailor, you see, and it hurts me to see clothes in shambles. I just wanted to help mend your cloak before it fell into disrepair," she explained while staring down at her hands.

The aloof stranger narrowed her eyes for a moment. Then, she scooted closer to the window and patted the now-open space beside her. "Come up here, then," she coaxed. The red cloak was carefully shrugged over her shoulders and head as Michel tepidly stood from her seat. "Don't be shy. I don't bite…_much_," the debauched dame assured with a lascivious smile.

"R-Right, sorry, I just…" Michel blathered quietly. She cleared her throat again as her face heated. "I'm trying to get used to talking to people."

A smirk pulled up the white-haired woman's lips. "Kind of jumping into the deep end talking to someone like me first, don't you think?" she wondered.

Michel shrugged stiffly. "Some people learn better that way," she replied before sitting down next to the other woman.

After moving to the third row with the suitcase, Anne busied herself with staring out the window while Michel removed her sewing kit from her travel bag. The bus went over a large bump which capsized Michel's rolling luggage. A sharp swear cut through the humid air in the vehicle—startling most of the other travelers on board and encouraging them to survey their surroundings for the origin of the sound. Anne kicked the luggage before unzipping the suitcase enough to stick a finger into the space. She glared into the case's darkness and brought her finger to her lips before zipping the luggage closed again.

"So, do you live around these parts?" Michel asked while drawing a burgundy thread through the cloth.

"For now," the cool cat responded. She fiddled with a stray thread on her pantyhose. "I've got a hot stud looking after me, so I'm out running an errand for him."

"Ah, that must be nice…" Michel trailed off while she blushed at the woman's blunt words.

"Aw, come on, sweetheart," the cat-eyed traveler laughed. "You've gotta have guys knocking down your door just to ask you out!"

_Maybe if I had been able to actually step outside my door, _Michel thought. Her grip on the cloak tightened almost imperceptibly before she met her new acquaintance's gaze with a smile. "I'm flattered, but that's really not the case."

"Don't give me that! There has to be at least _one _guy out there who, if you haven't caught his eye, he's caught yours. Now, spill it," the lascivious lady goaded.

Michel paused before answering hesitantly, "There's…one guy."

"Uh-huh…" the cat-eyed woman nodded. Anne leaned forward and rested her elbows on the back of their seat.

The wayfaring artist smiled nostalgically as she reminisced, "He's…well, he's been through a lot more than I could even imagine. Even so…he wanted to make _me _happy. Put bluntly, he's… amazing."

"But…?" Anne and the feline femme asked.

Michel rolled her eyes at their shared thirst for gossip. "_But_…he's a traveler. I should have seen it coming, that he would leave. I just…wish I could have said goodbye.

"It's weird, though," Michel continued after a pause. "I feel like I'm going to see him again soon. Or, at least, that I'm supposed to," she confessed. Her fingers continued to busy themselves with weaving the red thread through the burgundy cloak. "It's like there's still something tying me to him…"

"Well, duh," Anne interjected. "You're still working on that special-order trenchcoat he was so obsessed with, after all. Of course, he'll be back."

"Yeah…" Michel nodded. She snipped and tied the thread. The cloak looked brand new, like the tear had not even existed in the first place. "Maybe then…we can start where we left off."

"…He was your first, wasn't he?" the cat-eyed dame remarked.

Anne snickered as Michel's face lit up in a fierce blush. "Wh-Wh-What is that supposed to mean?" the bashful tailor asked as she cast her eyes away.

"Ah, the joys of youth," the debauched damsel mused.

"I-I'm twenty-one…" Michel muttered.

"Riiiiight," the white-haired wayfarer said, turning to the child behind her. "And how old are you?"

"I'm, uh, fourteen!" Anne lied.

"Sure, you are, kid." The lascivious lady received the shawl Michel handed to her and slipped it back over her head. "Thanks for the help," she said with a grin.

"It's no problem at all, Miss…" Michel trailed off before scratching lightly at her head. "Forgive me, I don't think I ever got your name."

"I think it'd hardly be fair to give my name without hearing yours first. After all, you're the one who approached me," the cloaked dame drawled with a smirk. "What's _your _name, sweetheart?"

"Brenda," Michel blurted without thinking. The debauched damsel tilted her head. "It's…It's Brenda."

"Brenda, huh… That's a pretty name," the cat-eyed traveler noted. She turned to the child. "What about you, kid?"

"An…drew," Anne introduced.

"Alright, Andrew and Brenda," their new acquaintance seemed to memorize. "Well, you can call me Mariah."

"It's a pleasure," Michel smiled.

"No, no, the pleasure is _all mine_, believe me," Mariah corrected with a sultry grin. "Now, before you go chasing after that boy again, let me give you some advice…"

And so, Michel was given the longest lecture of her life about the tricks of the trade in dealing with the opposite gender. In order to avoid falling asleep multiple times during the soliloquy, the wistful artist cast her eyes out the window past Mariah. As she examined the passing scenery, one thought cropped up most often in her mind.

_I wonder what Suki and the others are up to…_

* * *

_This is Luxor, a city about halfway up the Nile. In ancient times, it was called Thebes. Far to the west of the Nile, there lies a valley where the pharaohs of old were laid to rest. This is the Valley of the Kings. And, in this valley, a battle is soon to ensue!_

"Suki, are you _absolutely _sure you want to do this?" Abdul asked, as he, Jotaro, and Polnareff readied themselves for combat. The rocky terrain just outside the city limits, while solid and open, was incredibly hot and dry—the midday sun beating down on the four group members and heating the dusty surface on which they stood.

"This seems like quite a step up from the training you said you'd _been _doing," Polnareff noted while folding his arms.

"Oh, it is," the brunette agreed before exhaling a small laugh, "but, with Kakyoin and Mina out of commission for the time being, I feel like I can't drag my feet. I _need _to get a handle on how my abilities are shifting so I can be of the most use to you guys. Combat practice is gonna be the quickest way to get me up to speed."

"It's something to do while the old man and Iggy hit the can," Jotaro stated with a shrug.

"That's…the spirit…" Suki muttered as she stretched her legs. "I'll be sure to use everything I know I can do with my Stand right now. That way, it'll be easy for us to strategize as a unit when we run into trouble."

"You make a good point," Abdul observed. As he and Polnareff readied their Stands, Jotaro fell into a defensive position. "Are you ready?"

Suki smirked slightly after falling into a combat stance. "As I'll ever be."

The fiery fortune teller returned the expression and sent out a wave of flames with Magician's Red. The brazen brunette rushed forward and baseball-slid under the fire and tossed out a ball of water she had formed from her canteen. Polnareff sent Silver Chariot forward, but Suki placed her palm on the water now coating the ground and allowed herself to be sucked into the puddle, completely dodging the Stand's onslaught. As Abdul stood back and observed, the Frenchman stepped toward the water carefully. After toeing the puddle cautiously with a quizzical expression, he looked to Jotaro and shrugged upon nothing happening. After a few moments of the water seeping into the ground—just before the liquid completely dried up—Suki came launching out and jabbed Polnareff in the stomach. The air was swiftly punched out of the seasoned fencer's lungs, causing him to cough violently.

"Shit…Are you…okay…?" asked Suki, desperately trying to catch her breath as she stepped over to her friend.

"Heh," Polnareff smirked as he called Silver Chariot back to thrust toward the side of his opponent's head. "Never better!"

"You…!" Suki wheezed a laugh before ducking under the Stand's attack. Just as she did so—

"Crossfire Hurricane Special!" She heard from Abdul's direction as multiple flaming ankhs flew at her. The athletic aquamancer rolled to her right—deftly evading one projectile aimed for her shoulder. Hopping to her feet, Suki bent back to dodge another fiery ankh, twisting her body left to move away from an incoming rapier.

"Gotta say, you're pretty fast!" Polnareff observed as his Stand continued to swing at his opponent.

"Well, at least I can say years of training didn't go to waste!" Suki shot back while bobbing and weaving to dodge Polnareff's sword; the blade managed a couple of times to graze a few locks of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail. Meanwhile, the waves of fire and flaming ankhs continued to shoot her way, nearly singing her clothes. _This is some good practice I'm getting in, _thought the weary warrior, before glancing over to Jotaro, who had yet to attack her. _Don't know what exactly he's waiting for…_

The heated hydromancer rolled back to dodge an incoming sword swipe, rose back to her feet, and took a running start toward Jotaro. The stoic delinquent braced his feet against the ground, meeting the woman's gaze as she approached. Suki aimed a roundhouse kick at his right side. Jotaro caught her leg with his right hand, but before he could counterattack, she yanked her caught limb straight down, pulling the thug down with it. As he descended, she pulled back her left hand and threw an uppercut into his chin. As he reeled back, the thug swept his leg out and kicked Suki's other leg out from under her—sending her tumbling to the ground just as a small ember from a nearby wave of flames nearly nicked the top of her head.

Suki quickly jumped to her feet and began to throw jab after jab in Jotaro's direction. The delinquent skillfully dodged each punch as he continued to step back from her. Getting fed up with his evasive maneuvers, the impatient knight tossed a ball of water at his feet and dropped before touching the puddle and disappearing into the water. Seeing this, Jotaro sprinted away from the liquid—further than she could reach, he presumed but—

"Gotcha!" Suki shouted as she lunged seemingly out of midair close to the ground— rocketing straight for Jotaro's legs as he turned toward her. The brazen brunette bowled the thug over; however, her trajectory left her directly under the man.

The battle was over by the hand of the one who had started it…although, most likely not in the fashion she had expected.

"Agh, dammit," grunted Suki, her lower body completely pinned under her partner. "Dammit, Jotaro, stop acting like deadweight!" She swore as she desperately tried to wiggle out from under his weight.

"Actually, the ground's pretty comfortable here. Think I might stay here awhile," Jotaro remarked.

"Oh my _God_," groaned the weary warrior, smacking her forehead in the dirt.

"Maybe he'll move if you ask nicely," Polnareff suggested as he approached the two.

"…_Please _get off me?" Suki muttered.

"No."

"Well, pack it up everyone; it was a good run, but show's over. Guess I'll just die here," Suki sighed while proceeding to make herself comfortable on the ground.

The delinquent rolled off of the brunette and stood, allowing her to rise.

That is, if she had moved an inch from her prone position.

"Fight's over, Drama Queen. Get up," Jotaro commanded.

"Oh, _now _you want me on my feet?" she shot back. "Why don't you _make _me?"

The rough-edged hero grabbed the grounded warrior by the back of her top and roughly lifted her to her feet. Suki wiped her forehead with the back of her hand without responding.

"Geez, Jotaro, you don't have to manhandle her," Polnareff reprimanded. "I don't think she'd appreciate—"

"Thanks for that," Suki muttered to Jotaro with a provocative smirk and a bit of color to her cheeks.

Polnareff looked between Suki's expression and the subtle heated gaze Jotaro was giving her before he raised his hands and started backing away from the two.

"Oh, stop acting coy, _Jean_," the soft-eyed heroine confronted with folded arms. "Everyone on the boat to Edfu heard those disgusting jokes you and Mina were exchanging when our ears weren't being blown out by that dumb horn. You don't have room to talk about a couple of teenagers fooling around."

"I'm not saying anything!" Polnareff retorted. "I just don't want to get involved with whatever you two are up to. Besides, who said my jokes were gross? They couldn't have been _that _bad."

"Polnareff's tasteless jokes _aside_," Abdul interjected as he approached the trio, "should we not check on Mr. Joestar and Iggy?"

"Huh, it has felt like they've been gone awhile," Suki muttered. "Hermit Purple, while useful, isn't really built with combat in mind, and even with Iggy along, some of the enemies we've faced have been more than two-Stand jobs…"

"Well, knowing our luck, we should probably check," Polnareff agreed as he stretched his arms above his head.

"They should be just over this way," Abdul directed while gesturing towards a sizable outcropping of boulders. On further inspection, a small, ramshackle structure with no roof peeked over the rocks.

The measured pyromancer led the way to where their comrades had disappeared to, with Polnareff, Suki, and Jotaro taking up the rear.

"But, man, how did you manage to pop out of the air like that?" Polnareff mused. "I think I've got a good grasp on the rest of your abilities right now, but I can't really picture how _that _little feat happened."

"Well, I've figured out I can move amid bodies of water as long as they're connected," Suki explained. "Recent practice with Abdul taught me that I can also make a small leap from one pool to the next, as long as they're about a quarter of a meter apart. It doesn't matter what the pool is or how small it is, as long as it's there and comprised of water. So, I kinda just jumped from the ball of water I threw to a few stray sweat drops that had dripped down Jotaro's leg and flown off as he ran away. That's why it seemed like I appeared out of thin air."

"Even with your reflexes improving for your new abilities," Abdul added over his shoulder, "it still seems as if you cannot linger in the water for long. Not just because of the necessity of holding your breath, but also due to the arid climate of this country. Water certainly won't last long, especially during the day."

"Right, I've gotta keep on my toes about both of those things. The dry heat of this place isn't something I can fix, not to mention I have to hold my breath while I'm hidden. Hopefully I can overcome that, though; it's my own Stand, after all." Suki theorized.

After finishing her explanation, Suki cast a glance at the delinquent. As the four of them walked along, the weary warrior allowed her thoughts to wash over her.

_I can understand why he would've taken it easy on me…After all, this was just meant to be a demonstration; Polnareff, Abdul, and Jotaro were all deliberately focusing their attacks to keep me on my toes, not to cause harm. Even so, he hasn't really ever shown signs of the heat getting to him before, save when we were fighting the user of The Sun…_

On a second glance, her soft eyes locked with her partner's gaze. _Is everything alright? _she expressed silently.

Jotaro raised an eyebrow. _Should it not be? _he responded.

_I wonder…_ Suki cast her gaze to the side. _We _are _getting closer and closer by the day, and judging by their original estimates, we've got less than ten days… _She looked back at him again. _Could it be—_

The soft-eyed hero caught Polnareff rolling his eyes in a playful manner out of the corner of her sight before he turned his gaze forward again. "What," Suki piped up as she narrowed her eyes.

"Just thinking you guys should be more subtle, is all," the loudmouthed Frenchman chuckled.

"You're one to talk," Jotaro mumbled while shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Hey, I can be plenty subtle," the almighty king of the obvious shot back.

"You…_do _know what subtle means, right?" Suki asked.

"Of course I do! Subtlety is a piece of cake for me!" Suki and Jotaro exchanged a look at this utterly false statement. The floored Frenchman looked to the wise fortune teller. "Come on, Abdul, back me up here!"

"Sorry, Polnareff, but you're asking the wrong person for assistance," Abdul replied with an audible smirk.

Before Polnareff could riposte, the group heard a snapping sound, followed by a loud shout from behind the rocks and a thudding noise. "The damn thing electrocuted me!" they heard Joseph shout. As the party rounded the corner, they saw the old man wince as he sat up, while their canine companion seemed to stare at the unfolding scene with disinterest.

"Mr. Joestar, is everything alright?" Abdul asked. "We should probably get a move on."

"Huh? Oh, right. Just give me a second," Mr. Joestar grunted as he rose to his feet. "That scared the living daylights out of me. I can't believe it's still live. The cables must run underground or something," mused the seasoned elder, examining his left hand as he rejoined the group. "You can never tell with this place, it's like traveling through a fantasyland."

"Wait, wait, wait, go back," Suki spoke up while motioning to slow down. "'Cables'? 'Live'? '_Electrocuted'_?"

"Y-Yeah," affirmed Joseph, pointing to a lone rock to the left side of the door to the outhouse. Set into the rock was a single electrical outlet. Steam floated from the sizzling apparatus. The wary knight narrowed her eyes, approached the strange sight for the middle of nowhere, and squatted in front of it.

"Why the hell would this even _be _here…?" Suki murmured with a tilt of her head. "It'd be one thing if there was an old, abandoned house nearby. I doubt this dingy outhouse needs any sort of electricity…" She stood and turned back to the old man. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what compelled you to touch this random outlet?"

Mr. Joestar scratched his beard. "Well, I felt like I couldn't believe what I was seeing…or something like that," he attempted to rationalize.

"Couldn't control your curiosity, huh, old man?" Jotaro interjected.

Before the elder could voice a witty retort to his grandson, Polnareff asked, "Isn't it kind of like that urge you get as a kid to try sticking a fork in an outlet?"

"Yeah, it's exactly like that!" Joseph agreed.

Jotaro and Suki exchanged confused gazes, before turning to Abdul, who shrugged. "I'm afraid I can't empathize," the wise pyromancer admitted—speaking for the three of them. "Regardless of what made you believe poking a random outlet would be a good idea, we should stay wary. Such a strange phenomenon could be the source of an enemy Stand."

"R-Right," the reckless old man conceded.

"Let's keep moving," Abdul advised before treading to civilization—the rest of the group following close behind.

As the party departed, Suki cast one last look back at the bizarrely-placed apparatus.

_What kind of Stand would use electrical outlets, though? Who would use a Stand like that?_

* * *

"God, Mariah sure can _talk,_ can't she?" Anne complained while dragging her feet along the dusty streets.

"You're telling me…" Michel sighed as she looked up from a map of Luxor she had procured. "At least you weren't the one she was set on lecturing."

"Would any of the stuff she mentioned even _work_?" asked the skeptical adolescent, looking up at the sky as they continued down the sparsely populated road.

"Maybe if you want to play with a man's heart like a ball of yarn," Michel muttered. She pushed her glasses further up. "I've only dated one guy…_ever_, and even _I_ know being a heartbreaker like she recommends would only lead to trouble."

"It's because of all those romance novels you read, isn't it?" Anne probed with a smirk.

"I-I told you I only read those for the scenery…" the romantic tailor muttered. "I didn't get to travel much before Whit picked me up, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, I—"

The two were interrupted by loud thumping sounds emanating from Michel's suitcase. They exchanged a look before Michel sighed and proceeded to unzip the bag all the way. "Just push on the top," the slightly irritated artist advised.

The top flap of the suitcase fell forward as the man inside shoved against it and fell to the dirt with a grunt. "Fuckin' hell in a handbasket," Hol Horse panted. "Did I shove a kid into a suitcase in a past life or somethin'? Is that why this happened?"

"No, it happened because you're too recognizable," Michel answered.

"And you gals _aren't_?" the suffocated cowboy asked before rising to his feet with a cough.

"Think about it for half a second," the rational tailor instructed. She continued to lecture the reckless gunman while keeping one eye trained on Anne, who was walking over to a shop a few meters away. "Dio wanted Anne and me dead. That means we're _disposable_. As in, Dio probably wouldn't care enough to even remember what our Stands do, let alone what we look like. We're only threats insofar as numbers allied against him are increasing. On the other hand—" She pointed at Hol Horse. "—he recruited _you _specifically for a reason. He'll _remember _you, so if you're seen walking around with a couple of random Stand users he didn't bother to remember, there'll be trouble." Michel shrugged. "So, it's either hide yourself completely, or get plastic surgery. And since you're so adamant about not 'tarnishin' your moneymaker,' as you so eloquently put it, this is our only option."

"Tch. Fine, I get that much, but…" Hol Horse muttered while looking down at himself with a grimace. "Do I really hafta wear this stupid disguise _while I'm in the suitcase_?"

"It's a safety precaution," the tailor explained. She twisted her lips upon seeing even the largest-sized white t-shirt they could find was straining against Hol Horse's bulkier-than-average figure. Thankfully his lower body was relatively normal-sized, so the jeans covering his legs didn't appear to have risk of tearing. The black combat boots covering his feet were already dusty. Looking up at his face, Michel found his blond hair tied back in a ponytail to be quite a sight better than it was falling unkempt under a gaudy hat on a daily basis. "I don't get why you're so fussy about it. The heat is probably more manageable in the suitcase in those lighter clothes than in that heavy cowboy getup. Not to mention they're much less tacky."

Hol Horse summoned The Emperor and pointed it squarely at Michel. "Ya wanna run that by me again?" he asked in a growl.

"…I'm a tailor, I think I know what I'm talking about," Michel replied firmly. She pressed two fingers over the muzzle of the pistol as she locked eyes with the cowardly gunman. "And I know you won't shoot me. If what I heard happened to that sniper partner of yours is any indication, Whit doesn't take kindly to threats toward his allies. If something were to happen to me by _your _hand, he might show you something worse than death." With that, the tailor nudged the gun away and turned to gather Anne—all the while refusing to acknowledge Hol Horse's incessant grumbling. Michel's eyebrows rose as she watched the brave child enter the shop. "Anne, wait!" Michel called while chasing after the youth.

Hol Horse rolled his eyes and followed the two inside.

The inside of the store was dark—even natural light couldn't seep in through the closed blinds blocking the windows. The bell chimed quietly as the gunman and the tailor walked in, but, for all outward appearances, the store looked as if it had been abandoned long ago—especially with both the awning and the sign reading "Pet Shop" in Arabic falling apart over the entrance. Inside, the small cages lining the walls were still lit. Exotic breeds of lizards and rodents crawled and skittered about in their containers; some stopped and stared at the three intruders to their domain. Several standing bird cages loomed around the room with blankets shielding the supposedly sleeping birds from any light. Despite the outward health of the animals within, an intrusive, rotting stench pervaded the building.

"I think I came here once recently to make a delivery…about a year ago," Michel mused as she wrinkled her nose. "It must have shut down since then."

Hol Horse glared at a contained chameleon making eye contact with him. The vibrant reptile shot its tongue out and stuck to the window. The cowardly gunman hopped back with a startled yelp. Michel rolled her eyes as Hol Horse sighed, "Haven't seen any varmints like these around these parts."

"I think the owner outsourced them. I vaguely remember him getting on a soapbox about giving animals from different parts of the world new homes, if we couldn't free them completely," Michel explained while examining the cages. She carefully folded the map in her hands and placed it in her pocket. "I can't vouch for how legal that kind of business is, but he and the animals were happy, from what I could tell."

"Well, that's all fine and dandy," the skeptical cowboy muttered, "but what the hell are all these critters doing here still?"

"That's…a good question," Michel admitted as she adjusted her frames. She turned to call out to Anne, who scanned the room with a concerned gaze. "Were you worried about the animals in here?" the inquisitive tailor wondered.

"I…I thought…" Anne's eyes lowered. She stepped away from a much larger, empty bird cage as she spoke, "I thought I heard a bird screaming. It sounded…like it was in pain…"

_Whit mentioned she was sensitive to sound._ _That explains why she was able to hear through the windows. That, or the glass must be really thin. _The timid artist crouched down in front of the apprehensive girl and patted her head. "Well, we can't let that fly, now can we? We can look around a bit more, but stick close, alright?"

Anne gave a small smile and nodded.

Michel stood up fully and walked towards the far corner of the shop. "I hate to ask for details, but could you tell what was going on?" the tailor asked before stopping in front of a pair of larger cages against the back wall. The rightmost one seemed just wide enough to hold a bear without much room to spare, while the left cage could easily fit a person of Michel's average size inside. Each of the cages' roofs was covered by a towel, hiding the latches from view. Despite these precautions, both cages were completely empty.

"N-No…" Anne trailed off as she hovered around the cash register.

Next to the register sat a framed photo of four people posing in front of a cage containing a startled capuchin monkey at the Giza zoo. A pair of twin men with smooth, white hair and snake bites occupied the back row: the albino twin on the left winked flirtatiously at the camera as he pulled in his brother—whose brilliant cyan eyes glinted fearfully in the flash—with an arm around his neck. What coaxed Anne into more thoroughly examining the picture, however, were the two girls in front: one was a vaguely recognizable young woman with dark skin, long black hair, and a hooked nose, who also winked her maroon eyes at the camera while giving the other girl bunny ears. The other girl wore a short bob of brown hair that matched the softness of her chocolate-colored eyes and her innocent grin while she flashed a peace sign. There was no doubt that that was Suki.

"Ya sure it weren't yer brain playin' tricks on ya?" Hol Horse asked with a shrug.

The cowboy's question only served to forcefully drag Anne back into the present. She'd been so distracted that she had completely forgotten whence the posit had been derived.

"Kids've got crazy imaginations, these days," the skeptical gunman continued as he bent down to peer into an echidna cage closer to the floor. "Maybe you were jus' hearin' things."

The distracted child finally remembered what had encouraged her to enter this rundown establishment. "I heard it! I swear I did…" she trailed off as she walked behind the counter.

"If the animals are separated like they're supposed to be, then the bird could only have been in pain because of some other person coming in and attacking," Michel mused. She stood on her tiptoes and lifted the towel from the taller cage to reveal a padlock and an old, crumpled sign that read, "NOT FOR SALE –NEIL THE FALCON, 5 YEARS OLD". The tailor raised an eyebrow before lifting the towel on the roof of the other cage, revealing yet another padlock and sign. This sign read: "FOREVER THE ORANGUTAN, 20 YEARS OLD". _Who the hell names their pet "Forever"?_

"Ah…Ahh…" Anne whimpered.

"Anne? Anne, what's the matter?" Michel turned to look towards the child. Her eyes widened.

Sitting at Anne's feet behind the counter was a dead bird. Not just dead; the poor creature looked as if it had been…_eaten_—completely eviscerated from its neck down. Its lifeless eyes stared emptily back at the despairing girl.

Anne fell to her knees. "I…I _thought _I'd heard squelching noises too, but I…I didn't want to _think_…!" she sobbed.

A low hissing sound crept from the darkness further behind the counter, near the front corner of the shop. What might have once been a man with decaying, gray skin and starving, cloudy blue eyes crawled out of the shadows. It licked its blood-caked lips, uncaring that some of the strands of its ragged, ghostly-white hair kept catching on its gnarly, misshapen fangs. Its dusty apron and ripped shirt and jeans sagged on its emaciated form and swayed as it dragged itself forward. It hungrily stared at the girl sitting in front of it—sizing her up like she was a hapless rabbit in a wolf's den.

Anne's voice caught in her throat. All that came out was a rasping whimper.

Michel seized up as her eyes locked with the strange…creature. It did indeed _look_ like a man, but the way it slunk toward Anne was anything but human. It was as if anything that had made it a person had been sucked dry from its body, leaving only a starving, void husk behind. The fearful tailor could only palm the pistol kept in her leggings pocket before she tensed. She tightened her hand into a fist and rushed forward just as the monster lunged for the paralyzed girl.

Michel yanked Anne back and rolled with her to the side. The two barely dodged the swipe of the enemy's fraying reddish-brown nails. Amidst her evasion, the inexperienced fighter accidentally knocked over the birdcage in the middle of the room, which toppled over into the one behind it. The sound of birds screeching in agonized terror threatened to shatter her eardrum.

"Hol Horse, can you—" The tailor's plea was cut short as she heard the entrance bell jingle. She caught sight of the gunman fleeing as her eyes darted to the door. _That bastard__!_

Keeping one arm tightly wrapped around the girl in front of her, Michel pulled them both back towards the door—away from the emaciated creature as it staggered toward them. The artist fumbled for her pistol. She finally wrapped her hand around it and pointed it at the enemy. It seemed nonplussed by the introduction of this new weapon.

"St…Stay back…" Michel warned while pulling herself further away.

Anne's breathing grew heavy. "Ahh…" the child whined painfully.

The creature lumbered forward one step. Willing her shaking hand to function, Michel took a shuddering breath and cocked the hammer. "I said stay _back_!" she commanded as she pulled the trigger. The bullet whizzed through the air and landed in the wall behind it. The monster continued to skulk towards them. The cries of the caged birds grew deafening at the sound of the gunshot.

"Agh…" groaned Anne, clutching at her head as tears streamed down her cheeks. She squeezed her eyes shut and wailed.

Michel gritted her teeth and tightened her hold on Anne. "_Stay away!_" she bellowed as she pulled the trigger again. The bullet whizzed by its ear. Again and again she fired. She grazed its head with the third shot and hit the mark with the fourth and fifth bullets. Its head jerked back.

The bullets failed to stop the monster as it leapt for the two. Michel shut her eyes and turned to cover the bawling child.

The sound of glass shattering echoed through the room, as a heavy suitcase flew through the window—dismantling the shoddy blinds and knocking the monster to the floor. The creature growled and looked out the now-broken window to spot a familiar man glaring at it from the shadows of the shambled awning.

_Hol Horse…_ Michel's eyes narrowed. _Did he _really _have to take the hat out of the suitcase?_

Hol Horse tipped his hat up with the muzzle of his Emperor. "Yer hungry, right?" he challenged before aiming his pistol at the monster. The gun shook slightly in his hand as he bit down harshly on the end of his lit cigarette. "Then, chew on this!" Hol Horse pulled the trigger and loosed bullet after bullet into the monster's temple. The creature snarled, more inconvenienced by the shots than injured. The cowardly gunman grimaced. "Y'ain't gettin' them before ya get me, s-so…come at me!"

With a bestial roar, the monster scrambled to the window and leapt out at the gunman. Hol Horse's expression shifted from apprehension to something colder, more calculating, as he let the creature tackle him to the ground. Before the enemy could feast on its newest catch, the gunman used the momentum from the fall to toss the monster over himself into the middle of the street. The creature loosed a chilling, lonely scream as the sun's rays beat down on it from above. Under the natural light, its body completely crumbled into dust.

The afternoon desert wind carried any evidence of the monster's existence away in a soft, warm breeze.

"Good thing…" Hol Horse panted while turning onto his stomach with a half-hearted smirk, "it's high noon." He pressed his forehead to the dirt as he caught his breath. The cowardly casanova only looked up when he heard the bell jangle again. Michel stepped out into the sunlight with an unconscious Anne in her arms. "Tuckered out?" he wondered.

Michel gazed at the girl concernedly. "She's feverish," she corrected.

"The hell?" Hol Horse stood up and walked over to the two. He pressed the back of his hand to the unconscious girl's forehead before retracting it with a hiss. "I just thought she was sleepin'! Shit, she's burnin' up!"

"We need to get her to a bed. She should be fine after some rest," Michel explained. With that, she began to walk away from the shop. "There should be a hotel nearby, if memory serves."

"Wait," the cowboy said. The tailor halted and turned back to the gunman with a skeptical expression. He had already disappeared back into the building. She sighed and waited for a few moments before Hol Horse emerged from the store with the suitcase in tow—his hat presumably joined with the rest of his preferred outfit in the bag.

"So, how come yer so sure she's gonna be fine?" Hol Horse asked as he fell into step with Michel.

"I want you to tell me something, first," Michel intercepted. "You knew what that thing was, right? Where do they come from? Are there any more of them?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there, pardner," Hol Horse sighed. "Can't say I know those things front to back, but I know enough about 'em to keep my hide untanned.

"They're vampires, accordin' to Dio; if he sucks someone's blood n' leaves the body t' rot, it turns into one of 'em. Far as I know, they can't feel pain, but they got a major allergy to sunlight, as ya saw. Dio don't keep too many of 'em around anymore since he can fleshbud folks," he explained with a grimace, "but I saw one or two pop up from time to time. Most of 'em don't stick 'round long, fer multiple reasons," As Michel opened her mouth to ask a question, the knowledgeable cowboy pointed to a taller building they were approaching bearing a sign that read "Hotel." "Ya think that place'd be good?" he wondered.

The shy artist turned and sized up the lofty establishment. She nodded without a word as sweat rolled down her brow.

Despite the many floors seen from the exterior, the building's interior was nothing too flashy and gave off a homier vibe. To a traveler who had stayed in more hotels than he could count, this establishment was definitely more of an inn than a hotel.

"Welcome! How may I help you?" the young woman at the counter asked with a smile.

"Uh, two rooms, please," Michel requested.

The employee looked between the three before a knowing smile pulled up her retina-searing red lips. "Are you sure you don't want just one room? Or is there some drama I'm missing?"

Michel's face twisted slightly. She cast her eyes away as she muttered, "Y-You have the entirely wrong idea…We aren't…We're not—"

"They're my cousins," Hol Horse interrupted.

The nosy receptionist raised an eyebrow. "Cousins, sir?" she wondered.

"Distant ones, miss," the American casanova continued. He pulled his wallet from his pocket and removed a few lower-value Egyptian pounds. He smirked as he slid them across the counter to the employee. Hol Horse spoke in a sultry baritone as he flirted, "Meaning, they wouldn't have room to complain if I came by later and asked you out for coffee."

The bribed employee's cheeks glowed red. "I-I see. Two keys, then," she tittered as she quickly put the money offered to her in the register.

While the receptionist walked to the back wall to select the keys, Hol Horse turned to Michel with a self-satisfied grin. The exhausted tailor heaved a sigh.

"Hey, you don't look so good," observed the wary cowboy, noting the sweat still coursing down Michel's face. He held out his arms. "Lemme take the kid, and you carry the suitcase."

Michel stepped back as she tightened her grip on the child. "It's fine, I can take care of this," she assured. _The _one time _I regret not roughhousing with the rest of the group is when I can't carry a child less than half my size without getting winded_.

"Here are your keys, sir," the employee offered.

"Thank ya kindly, miss," Hol Horse responded as he took the keys held out to him. He winked at the receptionist before walking down the hall with the suitcase. The employee flirtily waved her fingers at him. Michel rolled her eyes and followed the flirtatious cowboy.

The trek up to the rooms was silent. It wasn't until Hol Horse unlocked the room labeled 829 and let Michel in before him that he reinitiated conversation. "'She should be fine after some rest', you said?" he recalled as he pulled the luggage in behind him and set it in the closet.

Michel nodded. "I'm going to need to get some ice for her…" she mumbled before she gently laid Anne on the bed closest to the window. She then turned to the other bed and began to strip it of its sheets. "Have you ever heard of post-traumatic stress disorder?" she asked as she turned to Hol Horse.

He shook his head.

Michel returned to her task as she continued, "It's a mental health condition that's caused by experiencing a horrifying event, put simply. I've only ever read about it, but common symptoms seem to be avoiding anything that could potentially relate back to that event. Even so, Anne still came with us this far, and agreed to help us defeat Dio… My best guess is that, up to this point, she's been experiencing a forced amnesia because of that trauma. Not only were her memories locked behind a subconscious quarantine, but her personality and even her Stand were suppressed," Michel's grip tightened on a comforter she was currently folding. "She was screaming like she was being tortured, back in the pet store… She might be reawakening to her Stand, if something was making her recall those hidden memories…"

"Okaaaaay, but that don't explain the fever," Hol Horse interjected as he sat in the chair in the corner of the room.

Michel turned to Hol Horse with a raised eyebrow. "Natural-born Stand users, from what I know, experience a severe fever in their early years. Even if their Stand doesn't surface until late childhood, that fever still happens," she explained as she carefully lifted Anne and placed her on the stripped bed. "Suki and Kyuu both experienced it, and so did I. To the common eye, it's just a stronger fever…But, I think…I think you could actually _die_ during that stage…"

Hol Horse's eyebrows raised.

"It was…terrifying…" the timid artist recounted. "I felt like any breath I took could be my last… I was constantly falling in and out of consciousness, and I almost just wanted it to end, but—" She met the gunman's eyes with a hardened gaze. "—somehow, I survived. And…" Michel's mirror-coated Stand emerged from her figure as she concluded, "Privacy manifested about two years later."

Hol Horse hummed in thought as Michel disappeared into the bathroom. As the tired tailor ran a washcloth under the cold water, she was vaguely aware of Hol Horse speaking. She wasn't sure if he was talking to her or thinking aloud until she exited the room and spotted him replacing the phone on the bedside table. Michel sighed, "Planning your date already?"

"Sounds like someone's jealous," Hol Horse teased with a smirk.

Michel folded the cloth. After removing the girl's hat and dropping it on the bedside table, she placed the damp rag on Anne's forehead. "Not really," she muttered.

The flirtatious cowboy's smirk dropped. He scratched the back of his neck.

"Her fever seems to be more of a mild case," the lovelorn tailor observed. "Makes sense, since she's been through all of this before." She looked to Hol Horse with a curious expression. "Do you…not remember your fever?"

The cowardly gunman huffed a short chuckle. "Yer askin' the wrong question," he corrected. Michel turned fully to the man as he stood and walked over to the now-unoccupied bed. After sitting down, he asked, "How much has that blond meerkat Whit told you about Stands?"

"…Enough," Michel answered while adjusting her glasses.

"Well, lemme ask ya somethin'" Hol Horse began as he folded his arms, "You think a kid with a gun for a Stand woulda thought he had a home to go back to? It's one thing if it's somethin' that _looks _kinda like a person. It would _seem_ like it was negotiable, at least—like it had feelings, same as its user."

The gunman summoned his ethereal weapon and examined it as though he had only seen it a handful of times. "My Emperor ain't like that," he explained. "It don't negotiate, don't feel. It just shoots." The grave cowboy dismissed his Stand and locked eyes with Michel. "I dunno what dictates how yer Stand ends up lookin'—natural-born or not—but one thing's fer certain…there ain't nothin' natural about this," he asserted before reaching down and pulling up the hem of his shirt.

Michel's eyes widened as her hands muffled her quiet gasp.

A nasty scar the size and shape of an arrowhead looked to be branded into Hol Horse's stomach, just above his right hip.

"Hurts to look at, huh?" the artificial Stand user mused as he pulled his shirt back down over the old wound. "Courtesy of 'Lord Dio,' since apparently my skills weren't good 'nuff for him…" He chuckled darkly. "I learned damn quick that thinkin' like that would get me killed. Shootin' skills or no—lady skills or no—all those other Stand users are outta my league, 'specially when I'm alone." He scratched the back of his neck. "I've been a sharpshooter fer a while, long before I met Dio, so maybe that's why my Stand came out like it did. Even remember holdin' a gun just like it, once. Fancied that pistol quite a bit, I did."

Hol Horse looked back to Michel to see tears streaming down her face.

"Wh-Hey, hey," the flustered cowboy stood and stepped toward the tailor. "What's the matter?"

"I-It's nothing," Michel sniffled as she removed her glasses and pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes.

"Ain't soundin' like nothing," Hol Horse dismissed while reaching for her shoulder. "Just—"

A knock on the door cut him off. He briefly cast his eyes to the weeping artist before walking over to the entrance and opening the door. The red-uniformed bellhop holding a small tub of ice smiled at him.

"You asked for ice, sir?" the smaller man asked.

"That, I did," the cowboy responded. He easily removed the container from the employee's hands and shut the door—completely missing the open hand the bellhop had held in front of him. Hol Horse was vaguely aware of an under-the-breath swear coming from behind the door as he walked back into the bedroom.

"Brent…" Michel sobbed quietly.

Hol Horse stopped and blinked.

The tailor turned upon hearing the gunman's footsteps halt. She rubbed at her eyes and looked at him curiously. "Who was that?" she asked with a raw throat.

"Uh, right." Hol Horse held the ice out to the woman. "Ya said you needed this, right?" he asked.

Michel blinked. As she accepted the container, she pressed, "Did you get bags, too?"

"Bags? Fer what?"

"You're hopeless," Michel huffed a small laugh before removing her backpack and unzipping it. She removed two plastic bags, one containing a pair of sewing scissors, the other brimming with safety pins. After dumping the pins on the bedside table and removing the scissors, she proceeded to fill each bag with ice. "You need to actually put the ice _in _something so it's easier to hold, or, in this case, so it doesn't absolutely drench any clothes or sheets. Then," she continued as she walked into the bathroom once more. The tailor walked out with two more dry washcloths and wrapped one around each of the bags, "you do this to make it a bit more comfortable."

Hol Horse folded his arms and rolled his eyes.

Michel placed a bag of ice underneath the junction of Anne's left arm and torso, then proceeded to do the same for the other side. As she looked to the unconscious girl's face, the artist lifted the damp washcloth slightly and rubbed it between her fingers. "I'll need to refresh this…" she murmured as she walked over to the bathroom again. "Hol Horse, could you put the rest of the ice in the fridge for me?" she requested. "It's the only place we can keep it cold for now."

The cowardly casanova acquiesced and picked up the container. Just as he put the ice away, Michel emerged from the bathroom again with a new wet washcloth. "I doubt ya need to replace 'em that often," Hol Horse said. "Ya said it'd pass soon, right?"

Michel bit her lip. "Yes, but," she started before looking toward Anne, "I…"

Hol Horse sighed, "Look. I get it." At this statement, Michel turned and gave the fibbing flirt a pointed look. "Okay, maybe I _don't_, but I don't wanna hafta play nurse for a kid _and_ a dame that overworked herself into sickness. Lord knows I can't take care of jus' one other person." Michel breathed a small laugh at this. "Anyhow, I'll be in the next room. Just bang on the wall if somethin' comes up," the cowboy lazily instructed before walking to the door and grabbing the suitcase.

"Wait, Hol Horse," Michel called as she walked into the entryway. Hol Horse turned with a cocked eyebrow as the tailor met his gaze. "Um…thank you."

"Relax, _bambina_, it was just ice," the cowardly casanova muttered.

"No, I mean, thank you for saving us earlier," the artist thanked with a smile. Her blue eyes seemed to glimmer in the dim lighting of the room. "It really…meant a lot to me."

Hol Horse cleared his throat. "It…It weren't nothin'," he muttered as he turned back to the door.

"…It didn't seem like nothing," Michel noted. Then, she smirked, "Or, as someone I know would it put it, 'There warn't squat to it, dame'."

The offended cowboy cringed. "Don't quit yer day job, Michelle," he advised before opening the door. "And don't work yerself sick."

"I'll try not to," Michel snickered as the gunman shut the door.

Hol Horse turned back and stared at the door for a few moments. Ultimately, he sighed and tugged the suitcase along to his own room nearby. _I'd rather not hafta worry about wakin' up in the middle of the night with a knife to my gullet…_

He unlocked the door to his room and walked in. After putting the bag away in the closet, he turned and sat down on the edge of the bed. The cowboy placed a fresh cigarette between his lips and lit the tip. _That fast-talkin' elevator attendant's got "murder" written all over 'im. I ain't surprised someone like her couldn't pick up on that, but somethin' feels off… _He exhaled a long drag of smoke. _Li'l drama queen like that wouldn't just up and die off…right? _The gunman smirked. _He's a bastard…and a lucky one, at that._

* * *

"…Ba…st…"

The radio at the small café crackled as it appeared to undergo a high level of interference. Joseph, Abdul, and Polnareff sat at a wooden picnic bench as they each indulged in a bottle of Coco-cola. Iggy snoozed away on one of the empty seats at the table. While the three men engaged in discussion about what to do next, Suki stared out over the Nile as her legs dangled over the water. Jotaro stood next to her; he seemed lost in thought as he gazed out over the mid-afternoon horizon.

"I never really thought about what might be living in these waters," Suki muttered as she gently kicked her legs against the stone make of the platform.

"Didn't interest you?" the soft-spoken delinquent wondered as he sat down next to her.

"Didn't occur to me," she corrected quietly. "I didn't see much—or think much, for that matter—beyond what was right in front of me. Still don't, to an extent."

Jotaro gazed at the weary warrior expectantly.

_Back in that dreamscape, Whit said that the two of us…that we would… _Suki looked back to her partner and her face reddened as she met his gaze. She cleared her throat and turned back to look out over the water as she stretched her arms over her head. "I think I might stick around here for a little while after everything's done: see what I haven't yet, help pick up the pieces. That kind of thing."

Suki turned back to see that Jotaro was still giving her an inquisitive look.

"After that…I dunno," she conceded. "Maybe we could visit you in Japan sometime," she suggested as she playfully nudged his arm. "I could show you some of my Dancing All Night albums; you could show me your manga collection—"

"Come during the summer festival," Jotaro suggested.

"Why—" Suki's lips twitched into a smirk, "Why, Jotaro, are you asking me on a _date_?"

"Don't get the wrong idea," he rebuked while tugging his hat over his eyes. "I've never been without girls hounding my every step. Maybe they'll back off…if I go with you."

"Well, I'd be _honored _to put some 'bratty, catty bitches' in their place," the weary warrior accepted with a mischievous grin.

Jotaro smirked. "Hope your bro won't mind too much," he commented.

Suki's expression fell. She drummed her fingers against the ground as she cast her eyes away. Jotaro hesitantly grazed his hand over hers. The soft-eyed hero turned her hand over and intertwined her fingers with his.

"I don't know if," Suki trailed off. She turned her gaze back to Jotaro. "I—"

"…It'd probably be in our best interest to rest up before heading to Cairo," the soft-eyed knight heard Joseph say.

_What…? _ "Wait, what are we doing?" Suki questioned as she pushed herself up off the ground.

"We were thinking it would be a good idea to stay in Luxor tonight and tomorrow, since we're all exhausted and Jotaro is still recovering from some of the injuries given to him by Anubis," Abdul reiterated.

"Ever since we got to Egypt, the enemy Stand users have been getting stronger and stronger. We've been winning these battles by the skin of our teeth," Polnareff coincided. "I think it'd be a good plan."

_Sounds like the three of them already agree. _Suki bit her lip. _I don't really want to start an argument._

"You look like you're dying to say something, Suki," Abdul observed, startling the woman. "Is something the matter?"

The weary warrior shook her head. "It's fine, don't worry," she assured.

"Okay, let's find a hotel," Joseph concluded as he stood from the table.

"Let's not." The group turned to Jotaro at his statement. The delinquent's gaze was hooded by his cap as he stood up and stated, "We aren't done talking about this."

Joseph, Polnareff, and Abdul exchanged a look.

"Jotaro…" Suki warned.

The soft-spoken thug placed a hand on her shoulder. "Relax. It just doesn't sound logical to me," he explained.

"What isn't logical about taking a rest when we're exhausted?" Mr. Joestar asked.

"For starters, name one time the enemy's let up because we were takin' a break. Even if they've only attacked us once during the night, that doesn't mean they weren't watching us," Jotaro rationalized.

"That sounds kinda paranoid…" Polnareff muttered.

"How paranoid is it when we know Dio can see what we're doing at any time?" the calculating delinquent pressed. Polnareff folded his arms. "Second, we might already be under attack by an enemy Stand user," Jotaro continued as he walked over to Joseph.

"What makes you say that?" Mr. Joestar inquired with narrowed eyes.

"Well, old man, tell me this:" Jotaro began. He reached toward his grandfather's back and pulled off a stray bottle cap that had avoided the eyes of the rest of the group. The cold thug leaned forward as he interrogated, "since when've you become a human magnet?" Jotaro brought the cap within a few centimeters of Joseph's shoulder and let go. The metal object flew back to the elder's shoulder with a miniscule _thunk_ sound.

"I guess it must be my magnetic personality," Joseph answered with a laugh.

"Mr. Joestar, this is hardly the time to be making jokes," Abdul sighed. The wary fortune teller gazed up at Jotaro with a concerned expression. "I understand what you're saying, Jotaro, and you may very well be right, but what brought this on? You've never voiced such disagreement like this before."

The stoic delinquent's hands tightened into fists at his sides. He pulled his hat down over his eyes.

"I'm asking you a question as an adult, Jotaro. It'd do you well to respond likewise," Abdul remarked.

Jotaro's eyes flashed in anger. "The hell'd you say…?" he growled.

"Come on, Abdul, don't you think you're being a little hard on him?" Mr. Joestar asked.

"Let me be perfectly clear: he has not voiced an illogical argument thus far. However, he has not been levelheaded in delivering his reasoning since the first word he spoke. In these circumstances, letting your emotions dictate your actions will only hurt you. I had thought Jotaro fully understood that," the astute foreteller confessed. His amber eyes burned into the cold blue irises of his opponent, "but I fear that this slip might be the beginning of a downward slope, so to speak."

"The hell are you implying…" Jotaro seethed quietly.

Mr. Joestar sat back down at the table to meet his friend eye to eye. "Abdul," the concerned veteran started, "don't tell me you're thinking—"

"It is not my decision alone to make," Abdul conceded as he folded his arms, "but, we must remember that time is of the essence. Considering that we have not received an update concerning the cure for Jotaro's Standless condition, we may have to consider leaving him in the Speedwagon Foundation's care."

Suki's eyes widened. Mr. Joestar heaved a sigh but didn't respond further. Polnareff twisted his lips and cast his eyes about in thought. Iggy glared daggers at Jotaro—likely out of envy of being able to remain on the sidelines.

Jotaro cast a glance at each of his colleagues. "You all think I should be sidelined?" he asked of the group.

Suki shook her head. She opened her mouth to respond, but Mr. Joestar spoke first:

"I'm not losing you out there, Jotaro, if I can help it," the adept grandfather asserted. "Your mother would never forgive me if I did, even if it was for her sake. If you can't fight, stay off the battlefield."

Jotaro yanked his hat over his eyes. "But, I did—"

"And at what cost, Jotaro?" Abdul probed. "You and Mina just barely survived an attack from one of the strongest enemy Stand users we've seen yet, and you're both _still _recovering from your injuries. If you can only manage to gain victory over his henchmen by the skin of your teeth, then how well does that bode for combatting Dio himself?"

The stoic thug remained silent.

"Jotaro," Polnareff started. "I was basically completely unconscious when Anubis was controlling me, so I didn't see any of his fight with you. But, once I woke up and saw you and Mina after it happened—all those cuts and holes that might as well have left you both dead in the street… I won't lie, I immediately wished you had killed me."

"_Polnareff_—" Abdul scolded.

"I know, I know," the reckless fencer interrupted, "but it's the truth, and he deserves to hear it. I'm just trying to explain where we're coming from," Polnareff looked back to Jotaro as he explained, "Look, you deserve to face down that _fils de pute _just as much as your gramps, but—" He sighed. "—you can't go barreling in there just because you _want _to." Polnareff offered a sympathetic smile. "We're not trying to be mean; we care about you. And if Kakyoin were here, I'm one-hundred-percent sure that you'd be completely outvoted."

"Regardless of Kakyoin's presence, he wouldn't be completely outvoted," Suki interjected as she stepped forward.

"You would disagree, Suki?" Abdul wondered.

"I don't disagree with the fact that, without a Stand, Jotaro would be at a severe disadvantage in a direct confrontation against Dio. But, implying that he's baggage without it is a straight-up lie," the soft-eyed knight confronted. "If he hadn't joined the fight between Mina and Anubis, she would've been killed on the spot; hell, _I _might be dead if Anubis had gotten the chance to chase after me. But, he didn't. Jotaro won that fight with wits more than anything else."

"Really? I don't remember him going into that much detail about it," Polnareff attempted to recall.

Suki cast her eyes to Jotaro, whose gaze was still obscured by his hat. _Now that I think about it, he was a lot broader when he talked about it with the others around…_

"Regardless, I can't imagine Whit taking more than one more day on that cure. But, if by this time tomorrow he still hasn't shown, then we can talk about this again. Even then, though, I'd still hesitate to bench Jotaro just because his Stand's out of commission," Suki argued.

"Well, if you don't want him to sit on the sidelines and we don't want him to face Dio, what other option is there?" Joseph wondered.

_Maybe—_ "What if he joined Whit's resistance group?" the softhearted hero suggested. "They've managed fine with multiple people that don't have combat-type Stands. Curt Kobain—Kasey—is fighting with them, for example. I'm sure Whit would be more than happy to let him join."

"I'm guessing you're also on board with Jotaro's idea to leave tomorrow?" the experienced elder clarified.

"The sooner we can save Mrs. Kujo—" –_And the sooner I can make sure Mama's okay— _"—the better. That's what I feel, at least."

"Hmmm, well, that at least sounds like a good idea," Mr. Joestar affirmed. He looked to his fiery companion. "Abdul? What do you think?"

"On further introspection, I do feel like it would make the most sense to hurry along," Abdul agreed.

"The sooner we finish this, the sooner we don't have to deal with enemy Stand users ever again," Polnareff claimed as he stretched his arms over his head, "right?"

Iggy stretched with a yawn before jumping off the bench.

"Alright, then," Joseph announced, "let's go find that hotel, and then we can head out after breakfast tomorrow."

The rest of the group nodded and began to walk after the old man. Suki turned to look at Jotaro. The stoic delinquent's gaze was fixed on some faraway point. The weary warrior offered half a smile before answering, "Sorry… I dunno if I helped much, but…I care about you, too, y'know."

The quiet delinquent blinked—as if waking from a daze. After a moment, he sighed. "'S fine," muttered Jotaro, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking after the group.

With a quiet sigh of her own, Suki followed along without another word.

* * *

"Hey, you've reached a Voicemail, or something. Call back later," Silva muttered groggily after picking up the phone.

"Silva? It's Beck. From SPW. Is Kasey there?" The voice from the phone asked.

"Beck? How'd you get this number?" the stern scout murmured.

"Kasey gave me the number for the hotel last night in case there was an emergency. I called, they put me through to the front desk, they redirected me, and now I'm talking to you. Could I talk to Kasey, speaking of?"

"Oh, no, he's super sleepy!" the sleepy blonde murmured energetically as she sat up on the side of the bed. "How's the hand? Or, uh, lack thereof?"

A sigh was heard on the other end of the line. "It's…healing fine, but I didn't call to shoot the breeze. I called because…I need his opinion on something."

"I guess I'm just chopped liver, then," Silva pouted.

"Look, it's not—" Another sigh. "Fine. You can hear, too, but Kasey _needs _to hear this, okay?"

"Understood, _mein Freund_," the silver-eyed scout agreed with a wink before swinging her legs back and forth. "What's the situation?"

"Well, you see, there's this person we found in critical condition—we weren't sure if either of you knew her. We think she might be a Stand user."

Beck proceeded to explain the unknown woman's condition. Silva felt her eyes droop and bit back a yawn while the young employee began describing the individual to her.

"We're currently holding her in Luxor International," Beck reported after finishing his description. "We were planning on moving her to As-Salam International Hospital in Cairo tomorrow morning, just to let you know. Hope to see you soon."

"Take care, Beck. Lemme know if you need a hand!" Silva bade. She cut off Beck's sigh by hanging up the phone. The buxom blonde laid back down and turned back to her Kasey. She smiled at his sleeping face before pecking his cheek. After wrapping her arms around his body, she snuggled closer to the man.

Kasey slowly opened his eyes. After adjusting to the darkness, his purple irises slid down to view the wily grin in the darkness. "Have you been awake long?" he rasped.

"Nope, Beck just called a few minutes ago," she reported. "Said that at Luxor International Hospital right now, at As-Salam International tomorrow, there is a young, pretty lady with dark eyes and pale skin that one of us might know!"

Kasey tilted his head. "That doesn't sound familiar right off the bat…" the runaway train engineer muttered. "Well, perhaps I'll see once I visit. Otherwise, did you sleep alright?"

"Heh, I'll tell you what, those sleep aids _Witz_ managed to get his hands on work wonders," Silva muttered with a smirk. "Giving us the sleep we need _and _keeping our schedules in-sync? Gotta admit, I'm amazed." She grimaced as she continued, "But, that means now we've gotta do those energy drugs for a few days now. _Not _super excited for _that_."

"Well, we do have to keep our schedules relatively synced in order to make sure Dagro, Kristovo, and Nirvan don't fly off to their place of unrest again. I'll never quite understand why they seem to stay in one spot while I'm asleep, though," Curt mumbled as he scratched the side of his head. "Are they sleeping at the same time, or…?"

"You just woke up, and you're already thinking too much," Silva giggled. She shifted closer to Kasey. "That dream must've really riled your brain up, huh?"

Curt stared past the woman at the clock sitting on the nightstand. "It…might have," murmured the train engineer, recalling what he could of the relived memory.

* * *

Curt Kobain reached to turn a dial on the control panel as he received a tug on his crisp black pants from a disembodied white hand. He turned and looked down to spot his ghostly youngest brother, Nirvan, trying to get his attention. "What's the matter, little one?"

_She's almost here, Curt, _the boy communicated without moving his mouth. Nirvan cast his eyes away and fidgeted with his short black hair as he continued, _she…doesn't seem affected…_

"And yet, she's storming down the hall as though she's out for blood?" The boy nodded. The train engineer sighed. "Well, it's not like this hasn't happened before," Curt reassured. "Dagro, Kristovo, come back here," he called out as he turned away from the controls for the _Roundabout_.

Two more wraiths emerged from the walls leading to the next car. The older-looking spirit with a black buzzcut, Kristovo, stood at attention beside his eldest brother, while the college-aged man with long black hair, Dagro, lazily drifted to Curt's other side.

Curt took a deep breath. _Alright. Just like we planned._

Dagro, Kristovo, and Nirvan all nodded before phasing through the floor. The door to the engineer's car opened just as they vanished.

A woman with flowing cyan locks and shimmering silver eyes stalked into the room. Her blue mullet was slightly disheveled, and she looked to be steadying her breathing as subtly as she could. Curt only got a cursory glimpse at the inside of her bulky, azure, goose down coat as she stepped forward, but within lay several rows of dagger sheaths—almost all of which were empty.

The femme fatale growled, "Any last words?"

Curt smiled slightly.

"You mess with Lord Dio's plans, you mess with me." the insulated dame threatened as she removed a dagger from her belt pouch situated over her dark khakis and pointed it at the engineer on the other side of the compartment. "It's as simple as that."

"That Stand of yours," Curt began, "Don't you think it would be better suited to serve someone else's purposes besides Dio?"

"Huh?"

"From what I can tell, you can fill objects or even living things with whatever you so choose, as long as your Stand can move in to perch on the subject and you can move in close enough to said subject to place something within them. I'm afraid you only ended up wasting your ability and your daggers on the illusions I created for you," the engineer explained.

The bluenette raised an eyebrow and summoned her Stand. What emerged was an ethereal skeleton of a grey heron with glowing yellow eyes. Despite its wings' lack of feathers, the creature seemed perfectly capable of carrying itself through the air around its user before landing on her shoulder. The red scarf around the bird's neck billowed in a nonexistent wind as it glared down Curt.

"You can see this?" the enemy Stand user asked.

"Quite well. Although—" The curious engineer raised a hand to his chin as he spoke, "it seems somewhat _incomplete_, if I'm going to be honest."

"Wh…What?" the layered intruder trembled slightly in anger.

"You can fill things, certainly, but from what I can tell, you can't remove the object so easily. Even then, the 'filling', as it were, is not permanent. Enough lack of focus after a period of time can reverse the effects. Such is to be expected, though, from having only one half of the Bennu Bird."

"…What's your point?"

"Isn't that different from how you and your sister originally chose to address your Stands?" The blue-haired woman froze. "One Stand can fill; one can empty… Together, they carry a semblance of the ancient bird of Egyptian myth, the one blessed to issue the call that determined the nature of creation. With what to fill the world, and with what to devoid it. According to what I saw, though, you don't agree with the moniker at _all_."

"S-Stop…" the enemy Stand user denied as she grasped at her head.

"As children, your Stands' names were given as such: 'When Broken' for Josie Stein, 'Easily Fixed' for you, Miss Pauline Stein." The anger in the woman's eyes briefly departed in favor of pure shock. "I think it's about time you stop kidding yourself with this 'devotion' to Dio. It isn't serving your sister; it isn't serving you," Curt smiled as he concluded, "and it isn't even serving him."

"You're dead," was all Pauline said before she lunged forward.

Dagro emerged from the ground behind the woman as Bleach, his pristine white Stand with a black blindfold and ebony accents, appeared at his side. The spirit grabbed Pauline's ankles. Dagro removed his Stand's blindfold to reveal glazed-over, rainbow-colored eyes as he set to work. The woman looked around in a panic.

"Who shut off the lights? Where the hell did you _go_?!" Pauline bellowed as she shook off the Stand's grasp. She waited a few seconds before taking a few calculated steps forward.

_It appears she can hear my breathing from the other side of the compartment. She must have keen hearing. _

Curt nodded to Kristovo.

Kristovo summoned his Stand, All Acoustically—a black wraith with white eyes and accents and an abdomen much like an acoustic guitar with several strings lining a sound hole in his stomach the size of a volleyball. The spirit began to strum along the strings, weaving a peaceful lullaby.

"You…!" Curt's assailant shouted as she dashed forward.

She swung her knife dangerously close to where Curt was originally standing just as he slipped out of reach. Pauline thrust her dagger towards his stomach before he swiftly sidestepped again. The only sounds echoing in the engineer's cabin were the guitarlike sounds of All Acoustically, the distant clacking of the train on the tracks, and the concentrated breathing and steps of Curt and Pauline as they engaged in their dangerous tango.

As time wore on, Pauline's movements grew sluggish and clumsy. Eventually, she dropped the knife and collapsed to the floor. She glared at Curt with a gaze that could cut diamond before her eyes slipped shut.

The exhausted engineer breathed a heavy sigh. "I never thought I'd say this, but thank goodness those self-defense classes from university bore down on me," he mumbled.

The sound of one person's applauding reached Curt's ears from the back of the car. He stood and turned to spot an unfamiliar blond man. The strange person wore a crisp, white hotel employee uniform with a matching hat and a collar adorned with a red stone. His green eyes seemed to glimmer to match the alluring flash of his teeth. Curt swallowed thickly as the stranger smiled at him.

"Well done. _Very _well done if I am to be utterly honest, Mr. Kobain. It was within my expectation to observe you triumph in such circumstances; however, with flying colors like _these_, I am truly amazed," the blond stranger praised.

"…Who are you, and how did you get on my train?" Curt asked as his brothers hovered to his side.

"Ah, where are my manners?" The odd person bowed to the engineer as he introduced himself, "I am known as Whit Houston. As for your following query, simply put, I snuck aboard through a standard procedure I coined myself. It is perfectly natural that neither you nor any of your staff was readily aware of my presence until this moment." Curt opened his mouth meaning to pose another question, but Whit cut him off with a hand gesture. "Allow me to be blunt: I have appeared before you because I desire your assistance in defeating Dio."

Curt's eyes widened.

Whit smiled. "I provide no bluff for you, Mr. Kobain. Much like yourself, I also heavily resent Dio, but for…reasons _far _different from your own," he explained as he instinctively rubbed the stone in his collar. He then looked to the unconscious bluenette. "I lured Miss Stein here in order to gift you a valuable ally. Minions of Dio have the penchant for being more eager to turn potential followers to their alliance. That aside, your analysis of her abilities was almost completely spot-on, yet you missed one vital clue. Her Stand is not just capable of filling subjects with tangible objects, but those of an intangible condition as well. Easily Fixed, or half of the complete 'Bennu Bird,' as you correctly presumed, has the ability to contain lingering spirits in creatures and people, living or otherwise."

Curt looked down at his own hands. He then looked to each of his brothers in turn. Dagro, Kristovo, and Nirvan all gazed at him with the same silent shock.

But, in each of their eyes, the eldest brother saw hope.

"I would not recommend accepting such a heavy task unless you are comfortable with two very important facets," Whit warned as he raised one finger. "Firstly, you must be prepared and willing to follow my orders to the letter. Whether or not I am able to give you answers as to why some requests will befall you will depend solely on the nature of said requests. Put bluntly, I am the head of this operation, and anything I say goes as follows. Do I make myself clear?" Curt nodded. "I am pleased to see you already follow orders quite well, Mr. Kobain." Whit remarked causing the black-haired man to flush slightly. The strange individual raised a second finger. "The second facet is perhaps where I may deprive myself of your assistance. You must be willing and able to leave behind everything you have at this time. This includes your current occupation, any loved ones—besides the ones already accompanying you—any properties or fixed assets. In addition, you must be fully prepared to never see those items and people again. This is a mission where death is an entirely possible result."

The monotonous rattle of the train on the tracks was deafening in that moment.

Curt stared at the floor as his brothers examined him.

_Bro, didn't you work your entire life for this job? _Kristovo asked while scratching his head.

_I may have, but…_Curt smiled sadly. _Every day that followed the passing of all of you…I've been drowning in self-doubt. Save for that one time when that girl told me she and her group would face Dio and give you three the closure you deserved…I haven't felt truly happy doing this…_

_You're so depressing sometimes, Curt, _Dagro chided as he blew his long black locks out of his face. _You're really okay with dying just for the sake of letting our spirits rest in peace?_

_Honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing with my life now, what I've _been _doing until now…_ _If I can serve a better purpose by accompanying this man… If I can make it up to you for being so negligent, then I will gladly do so, no matter the cost._

_It doesn't seem like we can talk you down, Curt, _Nirvan claimed as he wrapped his arms around himself. _Are you sure you'll be okay?_

_I should be asking the three of you that, _Curt shot back. _After all, it sounds like you'll be coming with me. Are _you _prepared to face Dio alongside me?_

_You're joking right? _Dagro asked with a sigh. _You even have to ask?_

_I'm definitely coming along, no matter what, _Nirvan stated firmly.

_We've had your back for this long. There's no way we're backing out now, _Kristovo encouraged with a grin. _We're with you to the bitter end, Bro!_

Curt met Whit's eyes with a resolved gaze. "I'll do it," he agreed.

"Excellent, I believed you would agree, but hearing you say so still pleases me," Whit enthused. "I have faith you will be able to recruit this woman to our side as well, given your previous showcase of cunning and group mentality."

The ebony-haired engineer turned back to the unconscious woman and lowered to his knees beside her. _Nirvan_, he called.

_But, Curt, her memories of Dio are too strong to erase…_Nirvan mused with a pout.

_Maybe so, but…_Curt turned the assailant—Pauline—over onto her back. Without looking to Whit, he asked, "You served Dio before you began this battle, right?"

"My, my, even without peering into my headspace, your perception is accurate to a near-frightening degree," the smiling bellhop complimented. "Indeed, I was originally a servant of his. One of his closest, even."

"Do you… Do you believe that love can triumph over his influence? Romantic love for another person, I mean," Curt queried.

Whit spent a silent moment appearing to ponder the question. "I do not believe I understand the objective of your inquiry, Mr. Kobain," the strange individual replied.

"Recently, I…I met a pair of individuals, both part of a group meaning to defeat that monster." Whit raised his eyebrows as Curt continued, "I managed to look into their deepest desires…and both wished to see who they believed to be the love of their life safe—someone who may very well still be in danger, despite their cunning, and someone who was spirited away with no semblance that they had been there to begin with. These two had _both _encountered Dio previously…and yet, they were completely aware of the hypnotic charisma of that monster…and they were able to act of their own volition, far out of his intent."

Curt brushed a few stray strands of hair out of the bluenette's face as he looked to his youngest brother. "Mr. Houston, do you object to my tampering with Miss Stein's memories?" the adventurous engineer asked.

"…Do what you believe you must, Mr. Kobain," Whit replied.

_Nirvan_, Curt began. He swallowed thickly as he locked eyes with his youngest brother. _I need you to create memories…of her being in love with me._

_What? _Nirvan was taken aback. _But, Curt, you're…aren't you…?_

_I know. _Curt sighed. _She won't help us if she's loyal to Dio, though, and this is the only alternative I can think of to possibly make her immune to his influence. I don't like it…I don't like doing this… but if it means finally letting you three rest, finding where our parents were spirited away, and even keeping her immune to Dio's dastardly charms…I'll do it. I'll turn myself into the target of her affections. But…_ The engineer turned to his youngest brother and met his gaze, _I want you to reverse this once everything is over. She needs to be free._

Nirvan stared deeply into his eldest brother's eyes. After what seemed like hours, the boy finally nodded and summoned his own Stand, Ever Minded. The spirit manifested as an amalgamous gray blob with only one appendage: a ghostly white arm that barely attached itself to the body. The beady black eyes on the Stand's body zeroed in on the woman before the hand pressed over her forehead. An eerie violet glow began to emanate from the appendage.

"It would most certainly be in the best interest of both of you to decide upon aliases. Altering her appearance would also be extremely beneficial for the both of you," Whit advised.

The engineer thought for a moment, closing his eyes as he mulled over his possible choices. "Kasey," Curt decided.

"KC? The reversal of your initials? Are you certain that is your final decision?" Whit asked with a skeptical look.

The resolute engineer nodded. "And as for her…I'll let her decide. It's…the least I could do."

"Do you contain an idea for the quite-possible situation in which she is lacking in options?" the eerie bellhop questioned.

Curt thought for a moment, his mind lingering on the memory of the eyes that shimmered brightly even in the darkness.

"Silva."

As if already recognizing her name, the woman's eyes fluttered open. She blearily looked up at Curt and narrowed her eyes. Nirvan panicked and drifted away slightly, but the engineer locked eyes with Pauline. As the bluenette finally smiled warmly up at Curt, he felt something frigid coil in the pit of his stomach.

* * *

_You're going to get this sorted _now_. _As this thought occurred to her upon walking into the hotel room, Suki felt something cold tighten in her chest. She stepped to the other side of the bed closest to the window and sat down. Exhaling a soft sigh, she cast her gaze to the light of the setting sun streaming through the window. A few moments passed before she felt the bed give under more weight. She glanced back at the soft-spoken delinquent sitting on the other side for a moment before pulling her legs up and curling her arms around them.

Even feeling that weight disappear from the bed, Suki still didn't move. It wasn't until she caught movement out of the corner of her eye that she finally looked up at Jotaro. He stared back silently.

"You're not gonna move until I talk, huh?" she muttered as she let her feet hit the ground.

He didn't respond.

The weary warrior sighed, "Why are you still putting up with me? And I don't want to hear 'because you intrigue me,' got it? What does that—" She turned away and ran a hand through her hair. "—What am I supposed to _make _of that?

"You called me a bitch the other day, and that really hurt. I was confused. I was mad. I still _am_ mad, because…I know you don't save that name for people you don't like." Suki wrapped her arms around herself as she felt her eyes begin to sting. "Someone…Someone told me—because I asked—that you called your _mom _that," she muttered. "I don't know how far past that you are…_if _you're past it, but what does that make me?

"I'm grateful for the kindness you've been showing me. But, something always seemed off with that. I know you're a nice person, but even some of the stuff you said and did has been beyond…what I'd expect." The softhearted hero clenched her hands in her lap. "I haven't known you for that long, I know. I probably sound like a presumptuous asshole. But, you can't make up what you did to your mom through me. I'm…not her.

"I just…don't think it's that healthy to project how you feel about a family member onto someone else," Suki added uncertainly.

Jotaro narrowed his eyes at the girl. "Speak for yourself," he shot back.

"What do you mean?" the soft-eyed knight pressed as her eyebrows rose.

"Going back to that 'intrigue' comment you're so fixated on, even though I said it was nonsense," the stoic delinquent began, "following that, you said you knew I was uncomfortable because your brother has similar mannerisms."

"Wait—"

"After that, you told me it was okay to look up to fictional characters just like you do," Jotaro continued while adjusting his cap. "He must've convinced you he looks up to them, for you to think that was an _admirable _thing to do."

"That's not what I—"

"The most incriminating thing, though, is that necklace you keep showing off," argued the delinquent, pointing at where the pendant's star shape faintly protruded through the thin cloth of Suki's shirt. "I get that it's an heirloom. You don't let anyone else hold it or even touch it. So why hand it off to a random kid who, for all you know, could just as easily toss it somewhere you'd never find it?"

"…I trust you with it," Suki murmured while tightening her arms around herself. "I thought you'd understand."

"_I _might've, but what if you'd latched onto someone else?" he asked.

"L-Latched on…?" Suki repeated with a shocked look in her eyes. "Wh-Why—?"

"Maybe because you met me first. If this had gone down differently, it could've been Whit. Hell, it might've been Willy, in some—"

"How the hell would you know?" Suki shot up and fixed Jotaro with a glare. "You wouldn't know. You didn't know him. _I _never knew him!"

Jotaro's aggressive gaze cooled slightly. "What do you mean '_knew_'?"

Suki tensed. She fisted at her tank top as she bit out, "That's not what we're _talking _about—"

"Why the hell do you keep shifting this shit under the rug?" the assertive thug asked. "You keep acting like _we _have to talk first, but you're in the exact same position!"

"You guys are gonna leave me behind anyway, so what's the fucking point of bothering you?" Suki wondered. "I want my family to be safe, I'm weaker than the rest of you, I'm shit-scared of going back in there; you all have valid reasons for wanting to sideline me. It isn't logical to argue.

"But, even without my mom or my brother in the equation, I still have a stake in this. My fate is still tied to Dio because of the blood that runs through my veins. I want to end it. I _have _to help end it! I can't just sit by and act like I'm unaffiliated!" Suki argued.

"…We don't want you to die," Jotaro admitted quietly.

Suki huffed a frustrated sigh. "I don't want any of _you _to die either!" she confronted, "That's another reason I want to come along! If I can prevent that from happening—"

"You're _not _jumping in and taking a blow for someone else," the cold hero asserted.

"Why do you assume that that's going to happen?" the soft-eyed knight interrogated. "I'm just a frail, stupid girl who's gonna get herself killed. That's why you don't want me to go along any further, right?"

"That's not—"

"Then, what? If you're so keen on me not trusting the people around me, then you guys must not trust _me_ much either, huh?" Suki asked as she took a step forward. "Has it all just been a lie? How much do you really care about me?" Jotaro froze. "Be honest with me."

When the delinquent met her gaze again, his own eyes were ablaze with anger, and something else Suki couldn't pinpoint.

Even so, she continued, taking one more step forward. "Jotaro—" His breath caught in his throat. "—What could someone like me mean to a man like you?"

As the words left her mouth, Jotaro's posture shifted. The change in his body language was subtle, but when he stepped forward, it was clear that he was advancing toward a threat. Suki tried to control her nerves but couldn't stop herself from backing up to the wall.

"J-Jotaro…?" she tried.

"Shut up… Get out of here," he hissed as he loomed over her. "Get _out_."

Suki's throat bobbed as she swallowed. As she forced her gaze to lock with his, she comprehended that almost-indiscernible emotion she thought she had been mistaken in seeing. Slowly, carefully, she raised a trembling hand towards him. When her fingertips made contact with his cheek, he responded as if he had been burned. He ripped away from her and closed the distance between them. With that final step towards his partner, the delinquent's dangerous intent was made crystal clear. Jotaro stared daggers into Suki, as if she was a completely unrecognizable, ill-intent-bearing entity.

Despite her fear, despite the potential danger, despite his anger, Suki met her partner's bleary gaze with hardened brown eyes and offered, "Do what you need to me."

Jotaro blinked and stared down at the soft-hearted hero with an indiscernible gaze.

"My well-being is of no consequence," she confessed. "I just have to protect all of you."

A few moments of silence passed in this room, which suddenly felt too stuffy—too claustrophobic. Suki sighed and relaxed her posture. Jotaro was silent. His eyes were conflicted as he met the weary warrior's firm gaze. Several seconds passed before the delinquent turned and walked out of the room without even looking his partner's way.

"Jota—"

The door slammed shut to interrupt her.

Suki sighed and dragged a hand through her hair. As she let her mind fall blank, she crawled into bed and curled up tightly—willing herself to sleep until she was needed once again.

* * *

Suki woke up on her side in the middle of a cobblestone road. The streetlamps flickered softly against the polka-dot blanket of the nighttime sky. As she rose to her feet, she felt a bolt of numbness lance through her left arm and leg that nearly left her paralyzed. However, the soft-eyed knight continued forward, with the thoughts that cycled through her head endlessly pushing her to keep moving.

_He needs me. They're all dead. He needs me. They're all dead. He needs me._

Every subsequent thought of him encouraged Suki to push that paralyzing apprehension further and further down. Every recollection of the mangled bodies of her friends and comrades supported her heavy limp in graduating to a careful jog before bursting into an all-out sprint.

_He needs me. He needs me. He needs me._

Suki saw the glitter of the artificial lights and the stars above glint off the waves of the Nile as she advanced toward the docks. Her heart bashed her rib cage with every forceful stride she made toward her partner and—by extension—the malevolent monster standing across from him, who she had dreaded facing every day she and her once-effervescent group of friends had closed in on Cairo.

_Need need need need need need need need need_

The vicious vampire's ever-present, confident, slimy grin was the only thing she caught a glimpse of—as she desperately reached for the back of the man she admired most with his name on her lips—before the monster wearing human skin vanished and a titanic steamroller crashed into the pavement where her partner had once stood.

Suki sank to her knees. Upon seeing Jotaro's shattered arm reaching back towards her from under the monstrous wheels of the vehicle, she shrieked in a voice that only she could hear.

_I need him._

As this realization occurred in her mind, she began to hear a voice she recognized calling out her name.

"Suki… Suki…!"

* * *

"Suki!"

The weary warrior's eyes shot open to view a bland, plaster ceiling above her. She looked to the source of the voice that had been calling to her and saw a man in heart-printed boxers standing over her, who had bright, baby blue eyes and soft silver hair that fell to his shoulders.

"You're—" Suki began. She scooted further away from the stranger and pulled her covers up to her nose—despite the disgusting feeling of the sheets against her sweat-caked skin. "Who are you? How did you get in my…?"

The foreign man pouted. "Well, how rude! I wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of someone screaming in pain; I turn over and see that you're having a nightmare that's making you shake the bed like that demon in _The Exorcist_; I come over to help you, and the first thing you ask is 'who are you?' like I'm some sort of random nobody?" he asked.

Suki blinked a few times in disbelief. "_Polnareff_?" she wondered.

The flummoxed Frenchman's shoulders slumped. "Am I _that _unrecognizable without my signature style?" he muttered defeatedly. "I don't know whether to be flattered or offended."

"Uh, sorry about that," Suki conceded. "How did you get in, though? Where is…?" she trailed off.

"Jotaro thought it would be best to take a different room tonight, so he's cozied up in the chair in Abdul and Mr. Joestar's room. Of course, he also didn't want you to be all by yourself in the room, so I offered to swap spots with him," Polnareff explained.

"Oh."

Polnareff sighed and entered the bathroom. Suki crossed her arms under her head and stared at the ceiling.

_That dream… _She groaned softly and ran her hands over her face. _I don't even want to remember that._

Upon hearing the bathroom door open once more, Suki noticed her new roommate walking out with a damp, white washcloth in hand. The caring fencer approached the weary hero and held the cloth out to her.

"Here," he offered.

"Oh, thanks," the soft-eyed knight muttered in thanks as she sat up and accepted the washcloth, which was warm to the touch.

"Now, I won't ask about what sort of _rendezvous _you had with Jotaro to make you two part on such a bad note," Polnareff began as Suki dabbed her face with the cloth. He lay back down in his bed as he continued, "but, I must admit, I _am _curious as to what made you start—"

"—shaking my bed like in _The Exorcist_? Are you obsessed with that movie or something?" Suki wondered. "I've only seen bits and pieces of that movie, but I'm pretty sure no human being could shake the bed like _that_ just from a regular nightmare."

"Psh, what, are you saying you and Kakyoin got possessed by demons to have these kinds of nightmares?" Polnareff chuckled.

_He's not too far off, but I'm not gonna _tell _him that._

"You really wanna hear what happened?" Suki pressed. "Everyone died. That's the long and short of it."

Polnareff's expression morphed into shock. "Everyone?" he parroted.

"Everyone but Jotaro," the exhausted warrior recounted while drawing a hand down her face, "but, then he was killed right in front of me. And I thought I could save him, too."

"Suki," he started, "do you really think that's gonna happen?"

"I dunno," the softhearted hero groaned. "I just—I don't know if…" she trailed off before pressing the cloth to her eyes. "Never mind."

Polnareff propped himself up on his pillow. "Talk to me," he comforted with a soft smile.

Suki removed the cloth with a sigh. She twirled the thin rag over her fingers as she stared at the ceiling. "I don't know if we're all gonna die trying to protect each other. I feel like I'm the biggest part of that problem."

Polnareff hummed with a focused expression. "I understand where you're coming from, but I think you've got us wrong," he claimed. Suki's eyes drifted from the ceiling to her supportive roommate. "I'm not saying I don't want to see everyone make it out alive—I do, and I think that's true for everyone here," he defended. Polnareff rolled his eyes and muttered under his breath, "Save for one bastard mutt that shall remain nameless."

The begrudged fencer's statement earned a slight, unenthused chuckle from Suki. Polnareff continued, "But, I think, if our discussion today was any indication, we want to save Holly Kujo first, and stop Dio—whatever the hell his plans with that Stand Transplant nonsense might be."

The weary warrior sighed again. "Sorry, I feel like that was selfish," she confessed.

"I didn't think it was that selfish," Polnareff consoled. "We do all want you to stay safe, I think we've made that pretty clear."

Suki nodded.

"You still feel like you'll be holding us back. Do I have that right?"

The soft-eyed knight nodded hesitantly.

"_Vraiment_? But, you've gotten so much stronger recently! You've said as much!" Polnareff claimed.

"That doesn't mean it was true," Suki argued blankly. "Whatever ideal of strength I had then, it was dumb and childish. I don't know the first thing about what that means."

The confused Frenchman blinked as if he was completely unaware of wherefrom such a thought could have originated. "Well," he began uncertainly, "if you still feel like you'll hold us back, why don't you join up with Whit's group like you suggested today?"

"Huh?" Suki asked. "Uh, well…"

"That bastard clearly has a liking for you and the Joestars, even if he's less than agreeable with anything else that has a pulse," Polnareff conceded with a huff. "I think it's worth asking him. Then, if he says yes, you can help us while staying out of the dangerous fights.

"I guess that makes sense," the weary hero muttered after a moment.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Polnareff yawned. "I'm just throwing out suggestions."

_I don't really see why he'd say "no," but the way he's talked to me about my "purpose" made it sound like I had to be on the front lines. I guess it wouldn't hurt anything to ask him…_

"Yeah, I think I'll try that, when I get the chance," Suki affirmed. "Thank you, Polnareff."

"No problem," he replied sleepily as he snuggled further into his pillow. "'S what I'm here for."

Suki reached over and turned out the light before placing the rag on the side table. "G'night," she bade as she sank back under her sheets.

A soft snore came from Polnareff's bed in reply.

With a roll of her eyes, Suki attempted to make herself comfortable and willed herself to have a quiet, dreamless sleep.

* * *

_Jotaro wouldn't say a word about his argument last night, and Suki was clammed up about it, too. If the two get attacked by an enemy Stand user, who knows if they'd come out alright?_

This tangential thought crossed Joseph's mind for only a millisecond before he was brought back to reality by the pressing, invisible force yanking him towards the escalator steps.

The events of that morning had already been more confusing than those of the previous day: Mr. Joestar had somehow completed a full one-eighty degree rotation from the head of the bed to the foot all in his sleep, he had somehow managed to lift the metallically-accessorized skirts of a few women just by walking past them—despite his lack of intent—and just a few moments prior he had been attacked by possessed cutlery that had flown towards him off a rolling cart. Much as he didn't want to admit it, Jotaro had been right.

But, with that warning, Mr. Joestar had been able to plan.

"Mr. Joestar, hang on!" Abdul called out as he vaulted over the handrail and dropped to the ground. As the fiery fortune teller approached the emergency stop button, he hesitated as his eyes fell upon something unexpectedly situated directly next to the switch.

"Sometime _today_, Abdul!" Joseph shouted back, which snapped Abdul out of his daze. After the stoic foreteller pressed the button, the escalator came to a shuddering halt. The old man's face and prosthetic hand lay prone just a few millimeters shy of the comb plate. Mr. Joestar breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he rose to his feet. "Thanks for the help."

"It's not a problem, Mr. Joestar," the controlled pyromancer replied as he folded his arms. "So, it seems you _are _still being attacked by an enemy Stand user…"

"Yeah… Ever since I touched that outlet yesterday, my body's been turned into one big magnet," the flustered old man explained. Unbeknownst to Joseph, an ashtray came flying off the table at his head. Abdul reacted and caught the object in midair, but this did nothing to prevent the used cigarettes and smoky residue from blanketing the elder's shoulders in ash. The stoic fortune teller shot his friend an apologetic look. "You see? The user turned me into a magnet, and now metal is attracted to me," Mr. Joestar sighed as he brushed the grime off his shoulders. "It looks like the magnetic pull is becoming stronger the longer the Stand's power remains in effect."

Mr. Joestar looked up to see a fair-haired woman in a dark-red cloak and a black micro mini skirt leaning against one of the pillars supporting the inside of the hotel. The sneer on her face suggested she was far from content with how events had been playing out in the lobby. All at once, that unpleasant look faded as she giggled sultrily and pushed herself off the support. Without another glance in the direction of the two men, she ran off towards the hallway; the chains which dangled from her skirt jingled subtly as she fled.

"That's her! That woman there is the Stand user!" Joseph announced as he pointed after the lady with the short skirt. "We've gotta find a way to stop her! And I have to get rid of this insane magnetic pull somehow or I won't be able to move my body at all!" he exclaimed as he broke into a run after the dame.

"We should also get the others!" Abdul suggested as he followed close behind. As Joseph passed a pedestal displaying an effeminate golden statue, the object began to fall forward. The startled foreteller shouted in surprise as he caught the statue. "It's so…heavy…!"

"Not again!" Joseph groaned. He stopped and turned to his friend. "Abdul, there's no time to get the others! Just look, she's getting away!" the older man directed Abdul's attention to the woman turning right further down the hall. She flashed a smirk at the two men before disappearing around the corner.

"Move away, Mr. Joestar! Just run after her!" Abdul bit out as he strained to even lift the statue off of himself.

"Right, on it!" Joseph affirmed before turning and following the short-skirted dame. "I have to get a good look at her face!" he thought aloud as he sprinted down the hall. As he came around the corner, Mr. Joestar stopped short as his eyes widened. "But…this is…"

The veteran stared at a lightly colored door decorated by a red border. The word _Ladies_ adorned the entrance in gold lettering with a heart motif making up the effeminate figure that normally denoted the room as such above the letters.

"Clever. She went into the ladies' room," Abdul mused as he approached his ally. "Now what?"

Joseph hummed in thought. A moment passed before he made his decision: "Guess I'm goin' in." Abdul's eyes widened as he watched the older man step toward the door. "My life is on the line here, so I guess I have to catch this vixen no matter what."

Abdul exclaimed in a panic, "But, Mr. Joestar, you can't!"

* * *

"'Shoppin' is the woman's job,' he says," Michel muttered. Aside from her quiet complaints, the annoyed tailor trod quietly down the same path she had taken to the market. "'I dunno what yer lookin' fer,' he says." She breathed a sigh as she cast a glance in her paper bag at the items she had purchased. "The guy who doesn't have a problem listening in on a near silent request and fulfilling it—he scoffs at the _foreign_ concept of a 'written list.' I'm starting to think he didn't want to injure what little pride he has by getting lost. He's lucky I didn't end up running into any enemy Stand users along the way…"

As that thought crossed her mind, Michel noticed a flicker of color in the corner of her vision. With a cautious step, the curious tailor investigated the entrance of the alley and spotted a familiar fair-haired woman under a burgundy cloak that shifted as she settled against the wall. "Mariah…?" Michel tried as she adjusted her glasses.

The cat-eyed lady looked up from the cigarette she was igniting. "Hey," she muttered noncommittally—contrary to the glint of a predator in her eye upon spotting the younger woman. "C'mere for a sec. I wanna ask you something." Michel stood firm. Mariah smirked. "C'mon, I told you already, I don't bite much."

"That 'much' is what's concerning me…" the shy artist mumbled.

The lascivious woman sighed but kept speaking as if she hadn't heard that last comment, "I'll be blunt. Do you know a man by the name of Hol Horse?"

Michel's throat worked as she tried to come up with an answer. "I think I would remember someone by a name like that," she offered.

Mariah shrugged and took a drag on her cigarette. "I just thought I heard his voice coming from your suitcase yesterday, is all," the lascivious lady recalled with an exhale of smoke.

"It's not the guy you're looking for, I can tell you that," Michel asserted.

"Well, whether or not I'm _looking _for him, I want to know why the hell a man whose voice I recognized was hiding away from me," Mariah drawled. The tailor felt a chill lick down her spine as the cat-eyed dame adjusted her posture slightly. Michel felt like a cornered mouse as her heart rate picked up. "Or, if he was _captured_, which I wouldn't put past him, in which case, I would have a different set of questions."

"Y-You can't expect me to know why a guy would want to confine himself in a suitcase," Michel's voice caught at the end of her statement as she cast her eyes away.

"Just answer the damn _question_!" The soft-spoken tailor flinched at the frustration in Mariah's tone as the white-haired lady threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped toward her. The cloaked woman sneered at Michel as she hoisted the artist by the collar of her shirt. The tailor grabbed at Mariah's arm in a feeble attempt to get away, but the cat-eyed lady just yanked her closer. "Hiding him away, capturing him, whatever!" snapped Mariah, ignoring Michel's hands flying to her shoulders. "I don't give a damn about him, I want to know why and how a nobody like you decided to get involved with one of Lord Dio's servants!"

Michel blinked. "Wh-What?" she asked. _She's with—?!_

The window of the shorter hotel nearby crashed outwards as two men hit the ground— followed by the startled and aggressive shrieks of several women. As the duo stood from the glass shards littering the ground, Michel found she recognized the men.

_Mr. Joestar…and Abdul…? _As if in slow-motion, the shy tailor darted her eyes to the woman holding her. Mariah's attention was currently off her captive—focused on the pair of men that collected themselves and turned their gazes to her. The cat-eyed woman smirked. Michel tightened her grip slightly on the lady's shoulders. _I have to do what I can…!_

Mariah turned her gaze back to Michel as she released the hapless tailor and pulled away without too much trouble, leaving the timid artist to cough slightly and back away. The left shoulder of her cloak glinted subtly under the midmorning sun as she turned with a flirtatious wave to Michel. Then, Mariah started charging down the street as the shouts of the two men grew closer.

"Look, there she is! She's headed that way!" Abdul directed.

"Dammit! How did that harlot get so far away? After her!" Joseph commanded as he led the way after the cloaked woman.

Michel backpedaled out of the way of the men as they came rushing by—their sprinting footfalls inadvertently extinguishing the cigarette Mariah had left behind. She jolted as Abdul stopped short and turned around. He approached Michel carefully and asked, "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine," Michel replied while turning slightly to avert her gaze.

Abdul took a step closer. "Wait, aren't you—?"

"Let's get a move on, Abdul! We're gonna lose her!" Joseph shouted as he jogged in place further away.

Abdul glanced between his companion and Michel once more before nodding to the tailor and rushing to catch up with the old man. The timid artist exhaled a sigh of relief as he departed.

_Okay, now to— _She patted her pocket where she kept her pistol and found the fabric ripped away. Her eyes widened as she looked at the gaping hole in her leggings. _Wh-What the…? _She absentmindedly felt her cheeks heat as she tugged her shirt over the new hole. Turning her gaze back to the two men in pursuit of the runaway dame, she noticed a small, black object shining darkly in the sunlight—attached as if by glue to Mr. Joestar's back. _That is _not_ good…_

Michel sighed heavily. Without a word, she summoned Privacy to her side. The Stand appeared to jitter and quake nervously as she stared after the three retreating figures. Michel's lips quirked up in a minute, sympathetic smile before returning to business. "Keep an eye on that shard I planted, Privacy," she commanded. "I'll need to keep my distance, for this one."

* * *

"What's the holdup…?" Jotaro wondered aloud as he discarded his cigarette.

Polnareff removed his own cigarette from his lips and exhaled a puff of smoke. "That's what I'd like to know," the impatient fencer replied. "Abdul went inside to find Mr. Joestar, but he hasn't come back either."

Suki stopped scratching behind the ears of the dog in her lap. "It hasn't been that long, but I wonder…" she trailed off.

"Oh no!" Polnareff cried, encouraging Suki and Jotaro to glance at him. "What if those two snuck off?"

"…What?" Jotaro asked.

"They're probably having an amazing breakfast as we speak!" the starving Frenchman predicted woefully.

The soft-spoken thug sighed. "It's more likely he's taking his time in the bathroom," he reasoned. "But if they don't show up in the next five minutes, we'll go look for them."

"Yeah, the bathroom. Guess that makes sense," Polnareff mused as he looked up at the clouds. "You know, come to think of it, the bathrooms in this hotel are spotless."

Iggy yawned loudly from Suki's lap. A moment passed and he hopped off to settle down on the ground beside her. The weary hydromancer smiled slightly and scratched behind his ears.

Several peaceful minutes passed before a couple of residents of Luxor ran by in a hurry.

"Huh? Something is definitely up…" Polnareff observed.

"Hey! Did you hear someone cut the rail line?" one of the rushing residents asked.

"What about all the trains?" the other man queried in his sprint.

"Luckily they've stopped running! At least for now!" the first resident responded.

"Someone actually cut the rail line? People nowadays sure are sick, don't you think?" the Frenchman mused.

"Yeah," Suki muttered, "no joke."

"Right? Who in their right mind would do something so terrible? Major douchecanoe…" Polnareff sighed. "Jotaro, Suki, you wanna know what I think? Rotten people always get what's coming to 'em. You mark my words, they'll get theirs."

The quiet delinquent turned and looked skyward.

Suki brought her knees up to her chin and sighed.

More time passed with only the sounds of the hustling morning workers to accompany the thoughts of the group.

"Those two are taking _forever_," Polnareff groaned after a while. "As long as they've been in there, you'd think they were putting on makeup and dressing for a gala!"

_I wonder what's taking Mr. Joestar and Abdul so long…_

Suki rested her head on her knees. She, Polnareff, Jotaro, and Iggy had already waited outside the hotel to meet up with the two older men for a while, longer than they had agreed to. It had been so long that even some of the kids that didn't seem to have school that day were wide awake and playing around. Suki cast her eyes to a trio of little girls playing pretend in a patch of mud nearby, one of whom wore a white knit hat, despite the weather. From what they were chattering about, it seemed like they were acting as a café worker and two customers gossiping about their husbands and home lives.

Listening in on the children, Polnareff chuckled, "Kids are great, huh?"

Suki smiled halfheartedly. "I guess so," she admitted, "but, I dunno, I feel like…they're not _that _much younger than me. I guess I don't really see the appeal yet."

"You sure sound noncommittal today," the Frenchman noted.

"Ah, really?" the weary warrior asked. "Sorry."

"…Would talking about it make you feel better?" Polnareff asked. "Not that you have to, but—"

"No, I get it," Suki said as she cast her eyes up to the clouds. "Maybe later."

"It's almost nine a.m.," Jotaro stated after looking at his watch. He, Polnareff and Suki all exchanged a concerned look. "They may have run into an enemy on the way here."

"You think we should see where they ran off to?" Polnareff asked as he stood.

"I guess," the thug sighed. He turned and began to walk down the sidewalk. "Good grief."

"It's time to go, Iggy," the impatient Frenchman coaxed before turning and following Jotaro.

The Boston Terrier made a whining noise before shuffling to his feet and scampering after the two. Suki stood up slowly. The ornery canine barked as he caught up with the men.

"Yeah, yeah, I know you're hungry. You're not the only one, believe me," the silver-haired fencer groaned. The peckish pup seemed to exhale a sigh at this.

Suki took a deep breath. _It'll all be fine_.

Polnareff turned around and gave her a quizzical look, encouraging her to jog over to the group and join their step.

Suddenly, Iggy split off from the rest of the group after a few steps with a disgruntled huff.

"Hey, Iggy, where do you think you're going?" Polnareff asked, but the canine had already run off. "Geez, what a stupid mutt…"

Suki took a few steps after the dog before turning back to the others. "Shouldn't we—?"

"Let's go," Jotaro said.

The weary warrior tensed at the glib statement before forcing herself to relax and walk with the others again.

* * *

Hol Horse glanced at Anne as he laid back on the opposite bed. The unconscious girl's chest rose and fell in sleep—a much more peaceful one than she had experienced the prior night. The cowardly cowboy tapped his hand on his leg as he turned his gaze to the analog clock on the bedside table. A few more moments passed as he exhaled a long yawn. The agitated gunman rose to his feet, strolled to the closet, and removed his old boots from the suitcase. He walked back to the bed and sat down. Hol Horse compared the heel of his cowboy boot to his combat boot— absentmindedly spinning the spur on his older shoe. A moment passed as he imagined a similar object accenting each of his combat boots. The thoughtful gunman narrowed his eyes.

_Maybe— _

A sudden knock on the door interrupted his train of thought, causing Hol Horse to drop his boot. A moment passed before he drew a hand down his face. With a sigh, he stood once more and strutted to the door.

Upon opening the door, the cowboy casanova spotted the female employee he had cavorted with the day before. She blushed as she looked up at him before staring downward. "G-Good morning, sir," she greeted.

"Mornin'," Hol Horse replied as he leaned one arm against the doorframe. He followed the receptionist's gaze to the brown paper bag she toted. "Got a problem that needs fixin', _bambina_?"

The employee seemed startled as she returned her gaze to the gunman's face and shook her head. "N-No, sir! I-I just wanted to hand this off to you," she explained while holding out the bag. "That woman who came in with you yesterday, Miss Mirror, I believe?"

Hol Horse took the parcel while keeping a friendly façade. "What about 'er?" he wondered.

"She seemed to be in a hurry, so she handed this to me and asked me to give it to you." The receptionist fiddled with a strand of her hair as she muttered, "Well, I say _handed_, but she practically threw it at me…"

"My apologies fer her behavior, miss. Anythin' I can do to make up fer it?" the flirtatious cowboy offered.

"Well, I _have _been looking forward to that coffee date you mentioned yesterday," the employee suggested.

Hol Horse grinned. "Just lemme set this down and I'll be ready," he agreed.

The woman smiled and nodded as he shut the door.

_Now, what did she…? _The cowboy raised an eyebrow as he scanned the contents of the bag. Inside were a few oranges, a pair of bananas, and two cups of yogurt, all neatly stacked within their paper confines. The gunman scoffed and threw the bag into the fridge. _She couldn't just come back to the room after she finished shoppin'? _As Hol Horse mulled over the question he just thought, he turned his gaze to the window. _She couldn't have just come back to the room…?_

The realization of what could be happening dawned on him as brightly as the morning light filtering through the glass.

"Shit…!" he hissed before storming out the door.

He noticed the employee still waiting outside the door out of the corner of his vision as he turned and locked the door behind him. She approached and asked, "I-Is something wro—?"

"Rain check, _bambina, _sorry for the short notice!" Hol Horse shouted behind him as he hotfooted it down the hall, leaving his startled date in his wake.

_Dammit_, _this woman is gonna be the _death _of me…!_

* * *

Unfortunately, stopping at Joseph and Abdul's room in the hotel had yielded no results for Polnareff, Suki, and Jotaro—save for more questions, given the relatively mundane condition the bedroom had been left in. The trio decided to scan the streets for any sign of either of their comrades.

_I feel like it has something to do with that "magnetism" Jotaro pointed out yesterday..._ _Did they not get that checked out? Or maybe they couldn't find anything last night, if they _did _go searching for the user, and started looking for them anew today. You'd think they would've said something to that effect, though…_

Looking behind her, Suki noticed Polnareff was walking a few steps further behind her and Jotaro. _He's lagging… Does he want us to talk it out?_ She darted her eyes to the delinquent before looking ahead again. _Jotaro might be agreeable, but I don't really know where to start, not right now… Should I say something, or—_

"Hey." The weary warrior was jolted from her thoughts. She looked up to the soft-spoken delinquent who had spoken to her, who appeared to be carefully examining the clouds. "About…last night…"

Suki tightened her hands into fists at her side. She took a short, calming breath before turning to the delinquent. "I _was _scared…but I said something that _she _did, didn't I?" she wondered. He cast his eyes to the side briefly before nodding. "I'm honestly more upset about what I ended up doing to you."

"What?" asked Jotaro, who was taken aback. "Why? I could've—"

"But, you didn't. Besides," Suki sighed, "I said more to upset you beyond that, right?" Jotaro let his eyes fall to the ground briefly. "I guess I feel…partially responsible for what happened to you, and I want to make up for it."

"You shouldn't feel responsible," Jotaro stated.

"That's what I told you after Steely Dan attacked me, but you still wanted to help me," Suki responded. "You were right there, and you couldn't fight back until the time was right… I couldn't just sit there and watch you get abused more than you already had. If anything, though, I might've just given you more unnecessary stress…" _It's…more painful to think about now…_

"But, why do you feel responsible for what happened with—?"

"Maybe if I had been more vocal about how weird that hotel felt, or if I had been less stubborn in arguing against Brent being there and making us crash there, specifically, on purpose… If I hadn't been so trusting, then we might not have gotten into that mess…" the softhearted hero trailed off.

"…You're using 'what-if's, too," Jotaro observed.

"I know. I _know_," admitted Suki, drawing a hand down her face, "but, I want to—!"

"Making yourself a punching bag isn't going to help anyone," the protective thug scolded as he stepped closer to her. "Dying won't help either."

"Then what am I _supposed _to do?" she wondered. "I know you told me I was useful to you back in Singapore but I—" She dragged a hand through her hair. "I just don't believe that. I don't think it's true anymore."

Jotaro appeared to think for a moment before responding, "You're lacking firepower. But, if you weren't here, we'd be missing a good stealth unit."

"…Stealth?" she muttered thoughtfully.

"Given what you showed off yesterday, you'd work better as support than a front-line fighter," the analytical delinquent rationalized. Suki cast her eyes downward. Jotaro sighed, "And I could've made that sound less—"

"I think that's what I've been needing to hear," Suki confessed. She smiled gently. "Thank you, Jotaro."

The blunt delinquent paused. He looked prepared to say something in response, but the pair suddenly heard a familiar voice shouting from much further away behind them. Upon turning around, they saw that Polnareff was nowhere to be found.

"God_dammit_, Polnareff…" Suki groaned. _He seemed to be okay when Mina was with him last time, so why does he have to run off _now_?_

"Polnareff?" Jotaro called as he stepped away from Suki and scanned his surroundings. "Polnareff, where did you go?" he asked louder.

Calling his name yielded no response loud enough to break through the bustle of the civilians milling about.

"Geez, this is _just_…" Suki sighed. "Well, come on, let's go look for him," directed the weary warrior, taking his left hand and walking a bit forward. He didn't follow after her. "What?" Suki asked. She looked back and noticed his eyes were fixed on their joined hands. The softhearted hero took a breath and squeezed his hand lightly. He walked closer to her, encouraging her to continue in the direction she had intended to go. And so, she did.

Even as a few moments of quiet passed between the two, save for the crunch of dirt under the pair's feet and the constant stream of gossip floating among the Luxor residents, they never heard the shouting again.

The only place that seemed observably populated at a glance—besides the streets—was a quaint restaurant across from a multi-story pastel building. Suki peered past the artistically woven tree and flower designs in the window to see several different tables covered with fine, lacy, white cloth and what looked to be a fully stocked bar in the back, with a framed certificate hanging close by. People young and old sat at each of the tables, enjoying what looked to be meticulously crafted meals of _ful medames_,_ falafel_, and other delicacies.

Ignoring the inane grumble of her stomach, Suki turned away from the establishment and continued walking along with Jotaro.

The soft-spoken delinquent finally broke the silence with, "Who's Brent?"

Suki's breath caught in her throat. After swallowing, she answered, "He is…_was_, Willy. He's…gone…_dead_."

The quiet thug took only a moment to process this statement and respond in kind with, "How?"

The weary warrior hesitated before recounting, "When we met him at that oasis…he kept advertising himself as this third party that just lives to screw around with Whit and Dio—two sides of a chess match he was watching if I wanted to use his analogy. Whit—" She sighed. "—had his reasons. Brent—Willy—hadn't just been meddling with Whit's plans; he had put his friends in danger in the past. He had even pretended to be their friend from what Whit told me…"

"Do you believe Whit?" Jotaro asked.

Suki put her free hand over her tightening chest. "Before they fought, Brent told me—" The softhearted hero's expression fell as she recalled the words, "'I'm _not _your friend. You never knew me, and you never _will _know me. I don't see the point of telling my life story to someone who wouldn't even understand half of it.'"

The soft-spoken delinquent narrowed his eyes. Then, he asked, "Whether you did or not…you'd still try to, wouldn't you?"

Suki was caught off-guard by the question. "W-well, yeah. Of course, I would," she claimed.

"You're so stubborn," Jotaro mused as he readjusted his cap. The soft-eyed knight pursed her lips before he continued, "I'm not saying that's an entirely bad thing."

Suki turned and looked up at her partner. He kept his eyes trained forward on the sidewalk. The weary warrior let her gaze drift forward again. "He sounded…sad, to me," she mused as her expression fell again. "Lonely, I mean. Like he was convinced people wouldn't like him."

The thug sighed lightly.

"I know, it's probably just me, but," Suki conceded, "he _did _say something that made me think he might not be…_evil_, at least," she explained. "He said he thought it would be entertaining to watch Talia mess with us, but he wanted to pull the plug once it became clear…what exactly she wanted to do…"

"I don't know if that would give him a pass…" Jotaro muttered as he narrowed his eyes.

Suki sighed. "I don't know either. In the end, I still knew so little about him. I thought I knew enough to call him a friend, but that might have all just been a lie. And now, he's gone…"

A stray cloud passed over the sun above. A shadow was cast over the two for the briefest of moments before the brightness of the ever-present star filtered down once more.

"I want to know more about who he was," Suki stated.

"Who'll you ask?" Jotaro wondered.

"Well, Whit probably wouldn't be a reliable source. Maybe I could ask Michel when she wakes up."

"The girl who attacked us on the coast, right?" the thug recalled. Suki shifted and scuffed her feet against the ground. "But, she's your friend…" Jotaro narrowed his eyes. "How the hell does she—?"

"I don't know, and I'm just as confused," she admitted. The two moved to pass by a small kid in front of an incredibly dusty storefront window. "But, maybe she can—"

"Jo—!" they heard a small voice call behind them. Upon turning around, they spotted a child—no more than eight years old—with an oversized black tank top and equally loose white slacks. A broken half-heart earring hung from each of his ears, and his silver hair stood straight up in an unusual hairstyle. "Jo…uh…" The kid pointed at the woman and tried, "S…Su… No, Sam… Sally? Uh…" He pressed his hands against the sides of his face, as he seemed to be having difficulty recalling something.

Suki's face twisted in confusion. _There's…no way, right?_ She crouched in front of the child and met his bright blue eyes. Aside from the boy's buck teeth and freckles, he looked all-too-familiar to the weary warrior. _I mean, why the hell _else _would a kid be running around looking like his mini-me…?_

"Hey, little boy, you didn't happen to see a French guy come through here, did you?" Jotaro asked. He brought his hand up in front of his forehead and continued, "The guy's about this tall, and he's got the exact same haircut as you do."

Suki turned to look at the delinquent as she fixed him with a disbelieving look. "Jotaro, are you _kidding _me?"

"What?" Jotaro asked. "He's just a kid."

_First, they think it's a good idea to spend more time resting when every other reason points to that being a bad idea, then the two eldest members don't take proper precautions to deal with the enemy Stand user that might have been tailing us since yesterday. Polnareff gets separated from the—wait, no, that's actually pretty normal._

Suki sighed._ Then, one of the most observant members of the group can't tell when something fishy is going on when a small boy with the exact same outfit and hairstyle as one of our comrades, who clearly doesn't look like a native, runs out and tries to call out to him? Am I going nuts?_ _I don't know how _I'm _the only one thinking logically here, but what the fuck ever…_

She turned her gaze back to the boy. "Jean Pierre Polnareff. That's your name, right?"

"Y-Yeah! That's me!" The kid affirmed.

"Good grief," Jotaro huffed. "There's no way."

"You wanna bet?" Suki asked. _I think I could prove it… _She observed her surroundings for a moment. Her eyes widened as she looked further down the street. "What's that woman doing without any clothes on?!" she cried.

"What? Where?!" the younger Polnareff exclaimed as he whipped around to look behind him. He seemed dejected to view the area as completely devoid of bare women. Jotaro's eyebrows rose in confusion.

"My goodness, Polnareff, were you actually _excited _to see a naked woman over there?" Suki snickered.

"N-No, of course I wasn't!" the youthful fencer defended before clearing his throat. He further attempted to fruitlessly retain his image as he continued, "As a gentleman, I was merely concerned for that woman's wellbeing!"

Jotaro stepped closer and crouched down next to Suki. "…What the fuck is happening?" he asked after a moment.

"Well, hopefully we can figure that out," Suki replied. "You can't remember our names, right?" she asked the boy. After concentrating harder than he likely needed to for a moment, he shook his head sadly. _Does this enemy Stand de-age your memories, too…?_ "Well, my name is Suki Kanao. Don't go forgetting it this time, alright?" The softhearted warrior gestured to her companion. "And this is Jotaro Kujo."

"Not 'Jotaro Joestar'?" her curt companion deadpanned.

Suki pursed her lips. "Are you ever going to let that go?" she wondered.

"No."

"Well, okay, then," Suki sighed before turning back to Polnareff. "Did you see the Stand user who attacked you?"

"Y-Yeah! He had…really weird brown hair that came out straight to the sides like this," Polnareff explained as he moved his hands to demonstrate the enemy's appearance. "And he had little bells tied to each side of his hair. Plus, he had a really surly face and a pair of triangle-shaped sunglasses."

"That doesn't sound too hard to miss," Suki noted as she mulled over the description. "Do you remember where you last saw him?"

"W-Well, I was running after him, and…ah…" Polnareff suddenly paled as he looked up. He trembled as he pointed at something behind them. "Th-There—!"

Suki and Jotaro whipped around to spot a man who touted the same features Polnareff had just described. "Found you…" the strange man murmured. In that instant, his shadow stretched out from his feet towards the two teenagers.

"L-Look out!" Polnareff shouted.

Suki gathered the boy in her arms and tumbled forward while Jotaro leapt to the side. After making sure Polnareff was unharmed, the soft-eyed knight turned back to the enemy Stand user. "I didn't feel him cut or slash me, but…"

"No, you've got it all wrong!" the youthful fencer cried. "Once his shadow touches you, you'll—!"

Suki felt herself falling to the ground, almost like everything was slowing to a crawl. Trying to push back against whatever was pulling her down, she realized she was standing fully. Suki looked down and realized her entire body was much smaller than she had grown accustomed to. _Uh-oh… _Looking to the side, she spotted her companion, who seemed completely crumpled by the weight of his coat. She could barely see his face past the heavy clothes he wore. _No…he got _both _of us…? _

Amidst her distraction, the uncanny opponent stalked over and picked Suki up by the throat. He tilted his head as he examined her. "You must be no more than eight now, right? Do you even know how to fight back yet?"

_Fight back…? _Suki wondered. She scrabbled at the unsettling enemy's tight grip. She distantly felt her boots slip off her body as she kicked her feet fruitlessly in the air. Her body fell limp as the strange man revealed his other arm to be holding a hatchet. Its sharp edge glittered fiendishly under the sun.

"Suki! Hang on!" Polnareff called out as he ran towards the imposing man.

The enemy waved the axe slightly with a click of his tongue. At that moment, something invisible seemed to heavily attack Polnareff, who braced himself against something that was desperately trying to fend off the phantom attack. As the boy tried to keep his distance from the opponent, he grimaced in response to the disconcerting man's filthy sneer.

"C-Can't…_breathe_…!" Suki gasped.

"You know, I've never gotten a thrill out of targets like you. I can't even remember what a little girl would sound like if I took her out," their unnatural enemy observed coldly. "You might think it's cruel of me to do this, but people always seem to call others out for doing things that are just part of their daily lives—call them 'cruel' and 'uncompassionate'—but they're really just exaggerating. So, what I'm doing can't be that cruel, in the end, and _someone's_ gotta carry out orders from someone like Lord Dio, after all."

_N-No…_Suki felt her lungs burn as she choked. All she could see was the bright blue sky above her slowly fade into white. She dully observed the silhouette of the axe, poised to strike._ …I-I have to…!_

"Ora!" the sharp battle cry was accompanied by the dark-haired boy leaping up and slamming his fist into the uncanny enemy's cheek. With a grunt, the strange man released his grip on the girl. He swiped at the boy with his hatchet, but the child ducked and shoved his fist into the opponent's stomach. The disconcerting enemy staggered back with a wheeze.

Suki gasped for air. Groggily attempting to regain her bearings, she finally realized that she had felt herself hit the sidewalk. Even so, she appeared to be moving at a standing level, despite the fact that her feet weren't touching the ground.

The other pedestrians finally seemed to be taking notice of the older man harassing three different children at once. A number of screams reached the girl's ears—likely coming from the people who saw the axe in the stranger's hand. As a few separate men approached the strange person, the dark-haired boy—who Suki was now aware had caught her—murmured something quickly that she couldn't quite parse and dashed into the nearby alleyway.

"Hey, come back here!" the strange enemy shouted.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" the two children heard an unknown man begin, "Drop that axe, you—!" His voice grew quieter as the boy ran them both away from the danger.

"H-Hey, why didn't you help him…?" Suki asked in Arabic. The boy didn't respond—as if she hadn't said anything at all. The tomboyish warrior pouted. "Down…_down_!" she hissed in English before she shoved out of his arms as they rounded a corner. The girl fixed her rescuer with an accusatory look while he caught his breath. Looking up at her from under his hat, he met her eyes with a glare of his own. Even so, he was shaking.

_Thankfully, we're just out of sight of the way in… _Suki observed the boy closer while keeping an eye on the alley entranceway. _Wait a second. He looks Japanese…_ She cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "Why leave friend?" asked the girl, wincing at her choppy delivery.

The dark-haired boy's eyes widened slightly before he looked away with what the girl construed to be a guilty expression. "Could only…save one," he muttered.

"What—"

"Yoohoo, kids? Where'd you _go_?" the two jolted as they heard the terrifying villain's voice coming from the entrance. Concerningly, they couldn't hear the voices of any of the other citizens who had approached him. Only the disgruntled and confused cries of several children bounced off the walls of the alley and reached their ears.

"Come on," Suki whispered before grabbing the boy's hand and leading him further into the alley. _Please don't be a dead end, please don't be a dead end…_

As the two rounded the last corner of the shadowed, winding path with no other split-offs, they were daunted by the sheer brick wall that sat in front of them. "Every…darn…_time_!" Suki quietly yelled as she threw her arms up in the air.

Despite the bleak moment, the furthest wall appeared to open slightly, revealing a hidden panel that opened like a door. The head of a little girl with a white hat and a unibrow poked out of the opening. Her eyes lit up as she spotted the two hapless foreigners. "This way!" the hatted girl called quietly as she offered a hand to the pair.

Suki looked back to her dark-haired rescuer, who stared confusedly between her and the new face. She wondered, "What are you—?"

"Olly olly oxen free…you little _shits_!" The enemy's voice was dangerously close— echoing frighteningly off the walls like it would in a haunted house.

"This way," translated Suki, taking the boy's hand again and leading him to safety. As the duo passed the entry to this secret passage, their rescuer scanned her surroundings before shutting the panel as inconspicuously as she could.

A tense moment passed. The three heard loud footsteps approach the panel in the darkness. Suki placed her hands over her mouth as she cowered closer to the boy. The girl with the white hat pressed her ear to the panel with a skeptical look.

The strange man sounded like he was berating himself rather harshly and kicking up dirt before subsequently muttering words of self-encouragement and repetitions of the phrase "atta boy." This only served to discomfort Suki further, especially with the way he said it.

A few more moments passed in fearful silence. Finally giving up, the uncanny man's footsteps faded as it sounded like he walked back down the alley to the open streets.

The three kids breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Did that guy hurt you two at all?" the girl with the white hat asked as she appeared to fumble around a bit in the shadows. She laughed victoriously as she appeared to find something that fit into her hand.

"I think…he almost killed me, but otherwise we're fine!" Suki assured.

"_Killed _you?!" the other girl cried as she flicked on the flashlight in her hand, nearly blinding the other two kids. "Whoops, sorry."

"Sherine!" another voice called from further in the passage.

Following the beam of light the girl shined down the tunnel—which seemed to wind down and around in a spiral, from the looks of things—the voice appeared to belong to a lad of her age, leading a duo of boys who also appeared to be the same age as the girl. The boy at the front of the pack wore a green tunic and a dark blue hat, with a short, unkempt mop of black hair poking out from underneath. The leading boy flicked off his own flashlight as he approached. He and his allies appeared to be armed: one held a slingshot in one hand with a bucket of what appeared to be mudballs in the other, one touted a sporty water gun, and the supposed leader handled what looked to be a foam cutlass across his shoulders.

"Hey, hands in the air!" the leader shouted, encouraging his posse to brandish their weapons at the two intruders. The dark-clothed boy narrowed his eyes at the antagonizing group while Suki raised an eyebrow. "Sherine, what did I tell you about letting other people in here without my asking?"

"Last I checked, you weren't the one in charge, Hakim!" the girl—apparently Sherine—shot back as she stuck out her tongue. "Anyway, I have a good reason for letting these two in!"

"Oh, really?" Hakim challenged as he folded his arms. The other two boys behind him followed suit.

"See, me and two of the other girls spotted a group of strong-looking adults outside the hotel in town earlier!" Sherine explained. She then pointed to the two newcomers. "These two look almost exactly like two of the adults! I figured that they were those adults' kids, so we could ask them to ask their parents for help, and we can get rid of that reindeer guy once and for all!"

_Reindeer guy…?_ Suki mentally drew up a comparison between the man who had attacked them and a brown, antlered creature with silver bell sashes. _I can't think of who else they might be talking about…_

Hakim sighed, "You remember the last time we asked for an adult's help? I do, cuz he's still here, eating our rations!"

"…Are you talking about the bean cakes we keep in the big box? Cuz those are for everyone, even guests," Sherine noted.

"Not if he eats _all_ of them!"

Suki looked over at her companion upon feeling a tug on her hand. With a confused expression, he pointed at his ear with his free hand. "Uh…will explain…later," Suki put together. The boy nodded and proceeded to listen without fully understanding the other children.

"Get over it," Sherine ordered. "Look, I don't think we'll have the same outcome with these two. Their mom and dad didn't look like they were from here, so I don't think they'd have much reason to stick around."

"Not from here, huh?" Hakim pondered as he leaned forward with a hand on his chin. His eyes lit up as he seemed to realize something. "Oh, hey, can either of you speak English?"

Suki raised her hand. "I can!" she volunteered. "Uh, a little bit. I have a basic understanding."

Hakim shrugged. "Better than nothing," he muttered.

"Why not ask the other adults around town for help? With this new guest, I mean?" the confused knight asked.

"We aren't gonna bring any other adults down here! That would compromise the safety of the hideout!" Hakim denied.

_Okay, but why bring one down here in the first place, then? _Suki wondered. _Unless he happened to wander down here…? _"What about asking them for help with that…reindeer guy?" she asked further while hoping she was on the same page about who they were dealing with.

Sherine shook her head. "We've tried that, but he always seems to know when he's being followed and goes into hiding. Even when we give our parents a detailed description, he somehow manages to avoid notice. I dunno how, but he does."

_Well, we sure got sucked into another side of this problem. Even so, this could help us turn back to normal, and maybe even help save that silver-haired boy, too! _Suki turned to the dark-clothed boy at her side. "I want to help with problems of theirs. Do you?" she asked.

The boy at her side didn't hesitate to nod. Suki smiled, causing her companion to turn away with reddened cheeks.

"We'll help!" Suki affirmed.

"Yay! Thank you so much!" Sherine enthused as she clapped her hands together. She sidled up to Hakim as she continued, "Sorry, we have yet to properly introduce ourselves! My name's Sherine!"

The leader of the other two boys rolled his eyes. Sherine elbowed him in the side. "H-Hakim. Good to meet ya," he introduced with a wince.

The two boys behind Hakim simply nodded.

_I guess they don't feel like divulging their names._

Suki smiled and gestured to herself. "My name's Aki—" she stopped herself. _My name is Akizuki, isn't it? Big Bro told me to call myself that, but…_

"Aki?" Sherine repeated with a quizzical look.

_That doesn't sound right. Why doesn't that sound right?_

"Is that _really _your name?" Hakim wondered skeptically.

"Hakim, don't be rude!" his unibrowed friend hissed.

_That boy who got turned first… He called me "Suki," so I guess there's no point trying to pretend I'm called differently. _"Uh, sorry about that," the tomboyish warrior conceded. "My name is Suki."

The other kids nodded and then turned to the dark-haired boy beside the multilingual brunette. He flinched at the sudden influx of attention. Suki leaned in and murmured, "Your name. What's that?"

The boy seemed to relax only slightly. He brought his cap over his eyes as he muttered only for her ears, "J-Jotaro…"

Suki gestured to her companion and introduced, "This is Jotaro."

"Alright, Suki, Jotaro," Hakim nodded to each of them in turn before turning around. His posse repositioned themselves around him before he began marching down the dark tunnel. He flicked his light back on again as he moved forward. "Let's get you acquainted with the big guy."

"And no touching the bean buns?" Sherine added teasingly.

Hakim turned around to reaffirm, "Don't touch _anything_, _especially_ not the bean buns!" He then turned back around and continued marching.

The unibrowed girl giggled before looking back to Suki and Jotaro. "Come on," she coaxed as she led the way forward.

Suki looked back to Jotaro. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "You okay?" she asked quietly.

Jotaro met her gaze and nodded. With a grin, Suki turned back around and began to follow Sherine down the dark passage.

"Jotaro," began the multilingual knight, absentmindedly finding it cute how his eyes lit up as she spoke his name, "I tell you what they said."

* * *

"This way," Beck directed as he led Kasey and Silva down the stark white hallway. "I'm surprised you got here so quickly, Kasey."

"Never underestimate what an army veteran can do in a pinch! I got tasked with transportation quite a bit, so manning a vehicle and moving quickly from point A to B is a cinch!" Kasey laughed boisterously.

"Wow, I wish I could be as efficient as you," the awed Speedwagon employee mused.

"Efficiency is nothing when compared to strength of will," Kasey expressed as he glanced at the bandages swathed over the resolute SPW member's right wrist. "I may have been in the army, but I'm lucky to have kept my body in one piece. After seeing my comrades cope with loss like that, it seems almost miraculous that you're still able to work."

Beck hummed as he gazed contemplatively at where his right hand once was. "The foundation did offer to give me a prosthetic—fully insured by the company. I accepted, but I chose not to go through with the surgery until the Joestars' mission is complete," he shared. "This is a really trying time for them. I feel like if I go through with the surgery now, the time it'll take to acclimate will put me out of commission until everything's over."

"That's an admirable work ethic, but aren't there a hundred or so other members of this division that could pick up the slack?" Silva asked as she absentmindedly twirled a lock of her blond hair.

Beck sighed through his nose. "Maybe so, but…I don't want to just sit around. I want to keep helping them, even if what I can do is limited," he admitted as he let his right arm drift back to his side. "With my injury, I'm really only able to perform communications-based tasks and reports."

"Lefties sure are a dying breed…" the voluptuous scout muttered.

"I'm actually ambidextrous. Honestly, though, even if I was right-handed, the things I have to do don't really require use of one hand over the other. It's mostly phone calls and organizing information, but at least it's _something_. And even if there's tons of people to pick up my slack, who's gonna pick up the slack for my partner?"

"Those same people?" Silva wondered after a pause.

Beck's expression drooped. The dark-haired scout looked to his partner with a raised brow. Silva shrugged, encouraging Kasey to sigh lightly.

"Look, when you've been in the business for as long as I have, you pick up a few tricks that serve to be…multipurpose," Kasey drawled. He stepped up beside Beck and threw his arm across his shoulders. "However, those kinds of abilities can be found just about anywhere else. Passion is irreplaceable, and you've got that. With the kind of drive you've got, I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up running this division later down the line."

"R-Really?" the subordinate's expression brightened into excitement. "Thank you so much, sir!"

"It's nothing, really," Kasey rasped with a serene smile.

The two men were interrupted by a loud clearing of the throat behind them. They looked to Silva, who appeared less than pleased. "Shouldn't we get a move on?" she asked tersely.

"R-Right," Beck muttered as he slipped out of Kasey's grip and continued to walk forward. Kasey gave his partner an apologetic look. Silva rolled her eyes.

"So, this woman is in _critical condition_, you said?" Kasey asked as he clasped his hands behind his back.

Beck's expression became grave. "Yes, and I don't think that's an overstatement," he affirmed. "We were able to get her on life support, thankfully, but even the professional doctors that have been dispatched here in Cairo are having difficulty bringing her back from that cusp. It might be the influence of an enemy Stand—hence why we called you two specifically—but…"

"Well, what's happened to her? What does her body look like?" Kasey asked.

Beck looked back to Silva in confusion. "I thought you told him…?" he trailed off.

"To be honest, I was kind of falling asleep during your explanation. Medical babble kind of bores me," the carefree blonde confessed with a sheepish smile.

Beck cleared his throat and readjusted his cap before turning back to Kasey. "Well, I'll give you the abridged explanation: she lost almost all of her left arm in whatever attack she was in. Her skin is almost completely charred and bruised, and what appear to be several bits of shrapnel have lacerated and splintered her body," the SPW member reported. "The most notable point the doctors kept bringing up, though, is a butterfly pattern that showed up on the X-ray of the woman's chest." Kasey nodded and hummed in thought. "Is that ringing any bells?" the resolute employee wondered.

"You might want to consider calling up a war doctor," Kasey advised. "I might not have been a doctor myself, but I've seen enough of my comrades' X-rays to know that that pattern is definitely indicative of blast lung. Couple that with the burnt skin and shrapnel, and I think we can reach the conclusion that this woman was attacked with an explosive of some sort." As soon as the word 'explosive' left his mouth, the black-haired man felt a pit of dread open up in his gut. "You…also wanted us to see her in person, right?"

Beck nodded as he reached the door to the patient's room. He knocked softly before turning back to the two. "We needed your input as our resident Stand users, but also, one of our scouts spotted—" the SPW member was interrupted by the nurse opening the door. She quietly beckoned the three adults into the room. Beck seemed to continue his explanation as they walked in, but Kasey stopped short as he witnessed the figure lying completely prone on the cot.

The pale-skinned woman seemed to struggle to breathe as her unbound chest rose and fell underneath her smock. Several electrodes had been attached to her charred skin and an IV drip had been stuck in her right wrist. Her left arm was completely gone; the area where it had presumably been removed was covered in bandages.

He'd seen her at a different time, in a different place. On the very train he had been chained to for so long. While she appeared to be currently unconscious—even with her body charred almost beyond recognition—Curt knew _exactly _who she was. It was that recognition that caused Kasey to take several seconds to realize Beck had been trying to speak with him.

"Please, Beck," Kasey began in an empty voice, "could you please tell me what you just said again?"

Beck seemed slightly concerned by his superior's abrupt shift in tone, but continued nonetheless in a softer tone, "I tried to tell you before we walked into the room, but one of our scouts spotted one of the people you've been seen speaking with engaging in combat with this woman. We thought…you might know her, at least tangentially."

Kasey nodded slowly. As he stepped closer to the immobile, vulnerable woman, he realized he had a decision to make. Curt felt as if he had been closed off in a tunnel with no earthly idea as to which way led to the light, which way led to the correct choice.

* * *

"So, did you and your friends carve out this tunnel yourselves?" Suki asked Sherine as they continued down the dark passage.

"Hah! That would be an achievement!" Sherine giggled. "No way, these've been here for a while, I think. You can't just make a tunnel overnight, after all, right?"

"Yeah," Suki agreed. _Why doesn't that sound right, though…?_

"There's a lot of these around here now. I don't really know when they started popping up, but just a coupla weeks ago, Hakim found this one. It took a whole day to walk from one end to the other, but it turns out to connect two ends of this entire city!" she explained excitedly. "Some of the more adventurous friends in our group managed to map up a lotta the passages into some sorta—" The hatted girl scratched her head. "—'Underground network,' he said…?"

"Where else do these tunnels lead?" asked Suki, ignoring the uneasy feeling that settled in her stomach.

"Lotsa places! Edfu, Aswan, here…even Cairo," Sherine shared before her expression became contemplative. "Well, that last one is just an assumption right now. Our leader ran off to try and figure out _where _in Cairo that one tunnel led, but…"

"But?"

"We haven't seen him in a couple of days," Sherine recalled. "We tried going to his parents, but his jerk of an uncle told us that his parents had 'gone on vacation' or something…" The girl's face fell. "I hope nothing bad's happened to him."

"I-I want to help find him!" Suki spoke up. Sherine looked to her with a quizzical look. "I live in Cairo. Your friend might've gotten lost in the city, so I can keep an eye out for him!"

"Really? You'd do that?"

The softhearted knight nodded heartily. "What's his name? What does he look like?" she asked.

"His name's Mahmoud. He's about our age, and our height," the unibrowed girl described. "He's got short black hair, but he typically wears a red hat over it. He's also got really thick eyebrows."

"Gotcha, gotcha…" Suki affirmed as she nodded. "I'll do my best to find him!"

Sherine smiled. "Thank you—!

"Hey, Sherine!" they heard Hakim's voice shout from an opening they had just passed. "Don't tell me you forgot where the hideout is _again_!"

Sherine's face grew red to the tips of her ears. "I did _not _forget!" she shot back as she stomped into the room carved into the wall.

Suki and Jotaro exchanged a look before the soft-eyed hero led the way into the room.

Despite not having been created by the kids, the warm, musty room was still impressive. It was about the length and width of a basketball court with a few meters separating the floor and ceiling. Inside, a large lantern sat in the middle, and several small crates and bins were stacked against the walls. Some of these crates had weapons used for play pretend and slingshots that poked out. One was piled high with snacks of all sorts. Another contained several flashlights, lanterns, and a few pairs of goggles with green lenses. Still another held several tunics in children's sizes and various colors. The room was completely barren of normal room amenities, save for a small shelf that was situated against the wall that had only a few books populating its levels.

"How many people use this place…?" Suki asked absentmindedly.

"Quite a few, but I'm not so good at keeping track of everyone," Sherine admitted with a sheepish smile. "That's been Mahmoud's job."

The softhearted knight gave an understanding nod before looking back to the room. Against the back wall was a blanket spread along the floor. On this blanket laid a large man, almost as large as one of the companions Suki had been traveling with. His long, black locks fell in front of his face as he snored away—the boxing gloves tattooed on his chest rose and fell with each breath.

As they came closer, Suki's face tightened. Something smelled like it had gone days without washing.

Suki narrowed her eyes as she stared at the sleeping man. _I feel like I know him from somewhere…but where?_

"Hey, wake up, ya freeloader!" commanded Hakim, swatting the man on the head with his fake cutlass.

The stranger rolled onto his back as his face tightened slightly. "Mm, not now, Kay… Daddy needs to…_sleep_…" he mumbled.

"Uh, excuse me…!" Suki called in English. "Need to…talk…!"

"Ghuh?" the American boxing enthusiast grumbled as he drew a hand over his face. With a grunt, he sat up and brushed his hair out of his dirty face. After blinking the sleep away, he gazed at the two newcomers in front of him. "Ah, a couple of new faces!" He grinned. "How're you two doing today?" he chuckled as he turned to his right, as if talking to someone else. "And Major Spring makes the same mistake a whopping _third _time! How does he expect a bunch of Egyptian natives to understand what he's saying? Lord knows, he sure doesn't have enough charisma to make them suddenly understand English."

"I can understand!" Suki stated. Upon getting an expectant look from the loud stranger, she shrunk back slightly and added, "S-Some. Not all."

Major Spring sighed. "I guess you wouldn't understand everything," he muttered as he reached into a crate behind him and pulled out a wrapped snack. Opening the wrapper revealed a small, pale bun.

"Don't eat!" Suki scolded. The boisterous man's hand stopped from reaching into the wrapper—his expression akin to a deer in headlights. "Those…are his," she explained while pointing to Hakim, who looked like he was about to cry out of frustration.

Major Spring paused as he took in the boy's expression. "Can't do anything right, now, can we, Major? Oh, how far you've fallen," he muttered. The man offered the snack to Hakim, who snatched it out of the American's hands without hesitation. "So, that's what he's been shouting at me about since I got here. Hah, guess I'm not wanted _here _either…" Major Spring yawned and disconcertingly cracked his neck. Then, he stood and began walking for the door. "Sorry for the trouble, all! You won't see me again, I promise!"

"W-Wait!" Suki called out. "They need…help!"

"'Help'?" The Major wondered as he stopped at the lantern in the middle of the room. He turned as Suki and Jotaro approached him.

"Big man…with big hair," Suki explained as she gestured his appearance, "hurts the kids!"

Major Spring narrowed his eyes at the children.

"Please…help?" the multilingual hero asked.

A moment that felt like an eternity passed, as Suki felt her heart rise into her throat from the possibility of his rejection of their request.

Suddenly, the boisterous boxer tipped his head back and laughed, but the noise that came from his lips was devoid of any joy. Major Spring crouched down and ruffled the girl's hair. "Sorry, little lady, but you're asking the wrong person for that kind of job," he explained.

"Wha…Why?" Suki asked. She couldn't help tearing up. She had never heard a voice that was so empty—like the person using it had already died.

"Why? Well… This might be a bit much for you to understand right now, but," The Major sighed, "when you get to be my age, you're not the only one who'll expect things of yourself. Teachers, friends…family; they'll all be expecting things of you. When you can't meet their expectations time and time again, when you start losing the ability to meet _your own _expectations, it's…hard to come back from that, to say the least.

"I've tried both sides, good and bad. Good only gave me an empty house to go home to. Bad made me into a cheating sham of what I once was," he recounted woefully. "Sorry, kids, but you'd be better off finding your…" he trailed off as he looked closer at the two, "…parents…"

The American boxer leaned forward in his crouch as he sized up Suki and Jotaro. "Why do I feel like I _know _you two from somewhere…?" he wondered softly. He turned to Jotaro and narrowed his eyes. "_Especially _you…" He reached forward and grasped the brim of his cap, not noticing the glint of anger in the boy's eyes, as he muttered, "You look just like—!"

Jotaro reeled back and hooked Major Spring in the cheek, causing the man to stumble back onto his rear. The Major stared at the boy with wide eyes. "Th-That _punch_…"

"'To fight a demon, one must become a demon.' That's what _Devilman _taught me," Jotaro said as he pointed at Major Spring. "You've been on both sides, and now you want to do good. So, now you have to be even _better _than you were before!"

_Jotaro…_Suki smiled. She turned to Major Spring and her face immediately fell upon seeing his blank expression.

The Major huffed a small chuckle, surprisingly. "Son, I couldn't understand a _word _you just said, aside from _maybe _'Devilman"? But, by the look in your eye…were you trying to tell me to get back on my feet?"

_I feel like…I've met this guy under worse circumstances… _Suki thought. _Even so, I think…he _wants_ to do good. _She nodded to herself. "It is hard…to go forward, sometimes. But, I believe you! And Jotaro does, too!"

"Jotaro…?" Recognition sparked in the man's eyes like a flame. He looked between the two kids with an incredulous expression. "…Kujo?"

Jotaro nodded.

"I see," Major Spring huffed with a light chuckle. "So, that kid believes in me. Even after everything that happened…?"

Major Spring turned his gaze to the ceiling, his self-deprecating look calming into something more placid. It was as if he could see something beyond the thick dirt ceiling, in the city above where people were doubtlessly continuing normally about their days. Seeming to wrestle with his inner thoughts further, the contemplative boxer stood and began to walk out of the room.

"Wait!" Suki called after him.

"This won't be goodbye, forever," assured the hulking American, stopping at the entrance. "You've just given me some stuff to think about. Whether I join the fight again or not, I still need to get out of these kids' hair. I've been bothering them with all my moping long enough. See you two…on the flipside. Major, out." With that, he walked away—his lonely footsteps echoing off the tunnel walls.

"Well, thanks for showing him the door for us," Hakim said as he scratched the back of his neck.

"It's…not a problem, but didn't you guys need him to fight back against the guy with the big hair?" Suki inquired.

"What did he say when you brought it up to him?" Sherine asked.

"He said…he had some stuff to think about. He wasn't sure if he'd join back up or not…" Suki explained.

Hakim sighed, "Maybe that's a sign of something."

"Sign of…what?" Suki wondered.

"Hakim?" Sherine asked.

"Maybe it'll all pass. Maybe we just need to sit back and wait for the bully to get bored with terrorizing us," the boy suggested. His two allies looked up from a box they were rummaging through and exchanged a concerned look.

"You're saying we should just _give up_?" Sherine accused.

"I'm _saying _we should play it safe!" Hakim shot back.

Suki looked between the two arguing children.

"You know, Mahmoud would never give up. He'd come up with something that'd make sure we all got out okay!" Sherine defended.

"Well, I'm not Mahmoud!" Hakim denied. The two other members of his posse stopped rummaging altogether. Sherine shrunk back. Her friend sighed once more. "I'm trying to make the best of what I've got. At least, right now, that guy doesn't try to hurt you or any of the girls…I'd rather have that than risk everyone getting hurt, worse than they already do."

"Hakim," the courageous girl wiped at her eyes and argued, "But, what about Suki and Jotaro's parents? Couldn't they—?"

"If they're anything like the last adult we've tried to deal with, they'll just cut and run as soon as they get their kids back," Hakim retorted. He turned to Suki and Jotaro with a defeated look. "And I don't think making hostages out of you would make the situation any better."

_Gee, thanks_. Suki frowned skeptically. She felt a tug on her hand and turned to Jotaro. The timid boy began to whisper quickly in her ear as the two other children continued to argue.

"Well, I'm not gonna wait around for him to leave!" Sherine asserted before storming away.

"You can't _seriously_ be saying you're gonna try and take him down yourself?" Hakim shot back.

"Of course not!" the determined girl replied as she looked back to the newcomers. "I'm gonna find their parents and ask for help!"

After Jotaro explained his plan to Suki, she asked, "You sure?"

The quiet boy appeared to hesitate slightly, but then nodded.

"That's not gonna work!" Hakim yelled.

"Says who?" asked Sherine, stepping back into the room over to Hakim.

"Says me!" the defensive boy shouted back as he stomped toward her.

"You guys!" Suki shouted as she stepped between the two kids. "I think we can solve this by reaching a com…compro…that _thing _that makes everyone on both sides happy!" She turned to Hakim. "You don't want to see your friends get hurt—" She turned to Sherine, "—and you don't want to just sit on your butt, right?" The two nodded. The multilingual knight clapped her hands together. "Well, why don't you guys distract him, just for a bit, and then _we _can get in close and finish the job?"

"But…that would just put _you _guys in danger!" Sherine interjected.

"One of our other friends might still be in danger with him, so we'd also be able to add one more to our ranks if we free him," Suki explained. "We should be able to outnumber him right now. As long as we don't let him grab us or hit us with his axe, we should be able to get in close and whale on him!"

"Okay, but do you have a plan?" Hakim asked.

Suki glanced back to Jotaro before turning back to Sherine. "Where's that map you said some of the others had drawn up?"

Sherine's expression grew quizzical, but this did not deter her from walking to the tiny bookshelf and procuring a worn red tome. She flicked to one of the pages by heart and pulled out a loose leaf of paper that was torn at the edges. The unibrowed girl turned it to Suki, who gestured her closer to the lantern light. "This is the one we have of Luxor. We hafta put together a bunch of sheets to fill out the entire map."

"Just this is fine," Suki stated. A few moments passed as the newcomers darted their eyes across the diagram. A few circles were drawn on this smaller map of Luxor—each connected to the edges of the paper by a thick black line. However, one circle was an outlier, not connected to any lines. The multilingual hero pointed at this stray mark with narrowed eyes. "Does this one lead anywhere?"

Hakim shook his head. "That's just a pit. It kind of widens out past the hole like a vase. There's too much space to fill back up, so we just ended up covering it with a big wooden plank," he explained. "Why?"

Suki walked over to where the American boxer had been sleeping on the ground and yanked up the blanket—coughing lightly at the raw smell. She then neatly rolled up the blanket under her arm. After walking to one of the small crates and removing two pairs of green-lensed goggles, she turned to the rest of the group with a smirk. "We have a plan."

* * *

Chapter Twenty-One - Two of Us

-END-

|To Be Continued|\|/

* * *

**ENDNOTES**

**Animalcule** – archaic, meaning "a microscopic animal"

**Coquelorum** – corrupted from archaic word "cockalorum," which means "a little man with a big attitude"

**Scrupelkwidnunk** – corrupted from the archaic words "scruple" ("a very small amount of something, especially a quality") and "quidnunc" ("an inquisitive, gossipy person")

**Koryphaios** – variation of the Greek term "coryphaeus," used for the chief or leader of a company or movement, or the head of a chorus in Attic drama

**_fils de pute _**– French for "son of a whore"

**_mein Freund_** – German for "my friend"

**_vraiment _**– French for "really"

**As usual, massive thanks to SquirreLJ for being my primo editor and master of effective critique for this story! New chapter next week to cap off the Alessi and Mariah fights, so stay tuned!**

**I'm sending lots of good vibes out to all of you during this rough time! Stay safe and stay healthy, my lovely readers! -BlueBow**


	7. Chapter 22 - You Make Me Feel So Young

**WARNING: This story contains instances of graphic violence, gore, coarse language, and sexual content. A warning will exist at the beginning of a chapter containing anything explicit, and will be sectioned off by another warning right beforehand, and another line right where the explicit scene ends. You have been warned.**

**This chapter is a bit of a meaty one; it's not as long as the last numbered chapter of the first season, at least! I hope you guys enjoy it!**

* * *

_How intriguing it is to witness how skirmishes shift based on the participation of certain individuals…_ Whit mused. He peered inquisitively through his binoculars to observe the ongoing chase between Mariah, Abdul, and Joseph, the latter of whom seemed to be struggling under the weight of several different metal objects of varying sizes and origins. _Well, "skirmish" may not be the proper term._

The burdened old man dropped to a knee on the road. Abdul chased after the lascivious woman without slowing down, much to the apparent frustration of Mariah.

_Knowing Miss Mariah's preferred tactic of trickery, it appears as if Abdul did not succumb to his own curiosity. Did someone perchance audibly note the strangeness of the outlet that yielded Mr. Joestar as the target? _The cat-eyed woman dashed into a dilapidated, abandoned, one-floor building with Abdul hot on her tail. _Understanding the user of Magician's Red, he may very well attempt to— _The observant attendant's ponderings were interrupted as he noticed the beginning sparks of a flame flicker around the building—the only warning before the entire structure burst into fierce embers. _…Such a tactic lay beyond my knowledge of his character._

While one green eye was watching through the binoculars and trained on the fiery fortune teller searching the inside of the building, the other eye spotted a familiar frail tailor sprinting closer to where the elder was struggling to move. _Ah, so Miss Jackson has decided upon this moment as opportune to assist, despite the earlier suggestion of mine to remain hidden. Fascinating… _

Whit noticed that she was not speaking as she stared at Mr. Joestar's face, which was not visible from Whit's angle of observation. _Is he divulging the mechanisms of Miss Mariah's Stand to her? I hold faith in Miss Jackson's abilities, but I am uncertain as to how exactly she could contribute beyond tracking their quite slippery opponent. Unless… _The scouting bellhop chose to silence his musings for the moment as he glimpsed the tailor's reaching into the conglomerate of metal objects coating Mr. Joestar's back. Her face twisted into a wince as she attempted to remove something from the pile.

As this occurred, through a window in the building, Whit caught the briefest sight of Mariah creeping up behind Abdul before shoving bodily into him. As the stoic pyromancer turned to his assailant and instinctively rebalanced himself against the wall, a white flash of light lit up the dusty glass pane. In the next moment, Abdul was no longer at the window. _So, she _did _resort to the stratagem of placing the outlet where he would have no choice but to touch! _Whit's thoughts were drawn away by the sound of glass crashing as the cloaked woman forcefully exited the flaming building. Mariah removed her shawl and threw it to the ground. She threw a grimace back inside as she stamped out a few stray embers dotting the red fabric.

At the sound of the window breaking, with an apparent hiss of pain, Michel yanked out the object she had been reaching for and retreated to the opposite side of the building. Just after, Mariah sauntered over to the front of the structure with a victorious grin. The flames that blistered the foundation were wiped from existence a moment later as Abdul burst through the front door. However, before the levelheaded foreteller could voice a remark to the enemy Stand user, as if by some invisible force, he was yanked toward his ally and forced to collapse on top of him with the many metallic objects sandwiched between them. The cat-eyed woman tipped her head back and laughed with a hand almost covering her mouth. Even in her triumph, she chose to be cautious about her distance from the two Stand users.

The factor Mariah had been remiss in expecting was Michel as the tailor came around the side of the building with her pistol trained on the runaway dame. Michel didn't even seem to be aware of the blood dripping from her palm onto the ground as she cocked the hammer of the gun and narrowed her eyes. The user of Bastet eyed the timid tailor with a warning glare.

The tension stretching between the two could be cut with a knife. Mariah's lips quirked up in a disbelieving grin as if this scenario were simply a joke.

No sooner did her expression grow light than did Michel pull the trigger on the pistol. The lascivious Stand user's face shifted back into cold calculation without a moment of thought as she ducked under the bullet. The projectile whizzed over her scalp and burrowed a hole through the hood of her cloak. Mariah's expression twisted in aggravation while Michel's face worked to suppress an instantaneous, dramatic flinch, likely in reaction to the gunshot.

The enemy Stand user, only seeming to care about preserving her own safety, turned on her heel and sprinted down the road. As soon as she was far enough away, Abdul found himself able to pull away from the pile covering Mr. Joestar. The helpful fortune teller proceeded to lift the heavier metallic objects off the old man while Michel pocketed her weapon and assisted in removing the lighter objects.

After a few moments of this, the elder was finally able to fully rise to his feet. He dusted himself off and readjusted his hat as he turned his gaze to Michel. The three seemed to quickly exchange information before Mr. Joestar extended his hand to the woman. With a firm nod, she grasped his hand with her uninjured one and shook it. Her arm seemed to glisten in the sunlight as she did so. Upon retracting her now mirror-coated arm, she examined it as it shook slightly before letting it direct her in the direction Mariah had fled in. Michel then led the way down the path as Abdul and Mr. Joestar followed close behind.

_Well, the situation appears to have readily solved itself so far with not a single input from my person. _Whit lowered his binoculars. With a breath, he used his Stand to move to the ground from the building he had perched on. After taking a few steps forward, he warped to the top of the structure next to the once-burning one. _Even so, I should advance with my prior schemes to examine if the other members of the group are faring as successfully, _he mused as he gracefully leapt from one roof to the next.

As the eerie attendant's feet touched down on the roof closest to where he knew the encounter with Alessi would soon play out, his eyes chanced upon a large figure on top of a nearby building. The silhouetted person appeared to be waiting for something to happen. The smile on Whit's face grew as he recognized the man from afar. _Perhaps I shall not require myself to clutch oxygen within my lungs for a prolonged period after all._

* * *

The sun beat down on the two Egyptian children as they exited the alleyway leading to the place where they would spring their trap.

"Do you really think this will work?" Hakim asked Sherine as he brandished his toy cutlass.

"Can't you trust them for just two seconds?" the brash girl responded with a huff. "Or are you trying to act tough because you forgot the plan?"

"I-I didn't forget!" the cautious boy denied.

"Really?"

Hakim sighed before he rattled off, "First, we've gotta find where the reindeer guy is hiding. That's our job, and the others are spaced around in case we need backup. We bring the jerk back to the ambush point, and Suki and Jotaro will take care of the rest!"

"That's exactly right," Sherine stated. "We've just gotta figure out _where _he would be hiding."

The apprehensive lad hummed nervously. A moment passed before he spoke up again, "Hey, I think I get why they would need everything else they took, but…why did they take those tunics?"

"What do you mean?" the trusting lass asked. "If they didn't wear better-sized clothes, they woulda tripped on their baggy pants and coat!"

"Okay, okay, lemme try…and ask another question," Hakim continued as he pulled at his hat. "Why were they wearing such big clothes like that in the first place?"

"Huh," Sherine muttered after a moment. She folded her arms as she mused aloud, "you know, I never—"

The sound of glass shattering violently grabbed the children's attention. Their eyes were drawn to the so-called "reindeer guy" crashing through the second-story window of the pink-colored building across the street. He collapsed to the ground with a loud thud as he grasped feebly at his broken and bloodied face, completely absent of the unique sunglasses he had worn before. Suddenly, a naked, silver-haired child appeared at the man's previous exit point and perched on the windowsill. He shouted at the villainous man in what sounded like English while the reindeer guy struggled to his feet. The uncanny villain grimaced back at the yelling boy before he spotted Hakim and Sherine out of the corner of his eye. A wicked grin twisted his lips before he started lumbering after the two children.

"S-Start running?" Hakim warbled.

"Start running…!" answered Sherine, grabbing his hand and yanking him along as the frightening criminal stumbled after them. The active girl chanced a single glance behind her to the window where she had spotted the unclothed boy only to see he had disappeared just as quickly as he had first shown up.

Sherine led her friend through the dusty alley as they barely escaped the grasp of the uncanny outlaw. She felt her lungs burn as she struggled to keep moving. Sweat beaded on her brow as she heard his deafening footsteps pounding with her heartbeat in her ears. She didn't want to listen to his unintelligible screeches, but she wasn't deaf, and so felt tears stinging her eyes as she couldn't ignore the frightening desperation in his voice. Even so, she kept running with Hakim, who seemed to be just as frenzied as her, as they kept sprinting toward the location they'd pinpointed on their map.

Their eyes lit up as they spotted what, from any other perspective, looked to be a beach blanket that had been left abandoned out in the weedy dirt plain. Sherine instinctively squeezed Hakim's hand as they neared the blanket by two meters. He squeezed back as they were one meter away. Finally, at the edge of the blanket, they leapt across it: just as the reindeer man violently lurched for them, just as he finally stepped onto the abandoned blanket, just as the blanket collapsed completely under his weight to reveal the gaping maw of the pit below...

Sherine and Hakim whipped around and grasped at the edges of the blanket before it fell in after him. As they heard the criminal hit the bottom a moment later, they covered the hole with the heavy blanket once more.

At the bottom of the pitfall, Alessi looked around as he rubbed his head. His confusion was quickly replaced by panic as the small shaft of sunlight that peeked through the hole was swiftly extinguished by the blanket. The only thing he saw before the light winked out—leaving the pit in unending darkness—was a predatory glint off a pair of green-lensed goggles peering at him from the shadows and steadily approaching.

A small, feminine voice the criminal recognized rang out in a language he couldn't understand shortly before he felt something blunt slam into his leg. The immoral outlaw grimaced as he grabbed at his calf. He was given no time to prepare as another strike smashed into his shoulder, forcing a grunt out of him.

"No one…" the enemy drawled as he drew his hatchet from his jacket, "no one axes Alessi!"

As he felt something crash into the back of his knee, he turned and swung his axe as he dropped in the hopes of nicking one of his assailants before they could flee. He heard nothing of a pained grunt or shout, but he felt two simultaneous punches pound him in the stomach.

"Having trouble…Alessi?" As the enemy wheezed, he heard that same voice, the one he couldn't place. He rose to his feet and swung his axe in a low circle around himself. Shortly after, he felt something round and metallic bash into his skull. With a grunt of pain the criminal brought the blade of his axe down toward where he'd heard the voice. A kick connected with his chest, shoving him away from the weapon that he had planted into the dirt.

"Don't you understand?" the voice asked as he felt something small and heavy crash into the back of his leg. He fell back again and looked up towards where the voice was coming from. Alessi could barely make out the figure of a small girl in the shadows his eyes had adjusted to. "The darkness is everyone's shadow."

Alessi realized too late what his assailants' plans had been as he felt two simultaneous impacts to his head once again.

His assailants, Suki and Jotaro, looked down at the criminal's unconscious body. The soft-spoken boy kicked him. Alessi did not wake up.

Suki breathed a deep sigh of relief. Her grip on the iron pipe she had used loosened until she dropped it beside her. "Worked much smoother than I thought would!" she attempted as she looked to Jotaro through her night-vision goggles. _These also worked much better than I thought they would, _she mused as she pocketed the weapon Hakim had handed her before she left: a pair of metal spheres attached by a thin wire that had seen better days. Hakim had also decided to give Jotaro the same item, but the quiet boy seemed to have forgotten he had his own, or he had just preferred not to use it. As she moved to pick up the abandoned hatchet embedded in the dirt, she eyed the corner of the pit, where her and Jotaro's currently oversized outfits lay neatly. _Once his powers wear off, we won't have to go back to the tunnel to get dressed again. _The girl grinned. "You made good plan!" praised the multilingual knight before she pulled uselessly at the weapon planted in the ground. It didn't budge a centimeter.

Jotaro sighed as he stepped over to the axe. With a grunt, he unearthed it and held it in both of his hands. Suki gave him a grateful look as he stared down at Alessi. "…Now we wait," he muttered.

A pair of voices yelped before the kids heard two thudding sounds from above them. "Those voices…" Suki murmured. _Those were…Sherine and Hakim…?!_

Suddenly, the thick blanket was removed from the opening. The shaft of light that would have filtered down was slightly obscured by a surprisingly young woman with white hair and a red cloak. Her irritation was palpable as she tersely swung her legs over the opening and jumped down the hole, landing lightly in front of the pair of kids. As the lady straightened, she leveled a glare that coerced the two into backing away.

"Really, Alessi?" the newcomer remarked. "You couldn't deal with two kids, _neither _of which has a Stand yet?"

_Sh-She's a Stand user, too…? _Suki grew panicked as she realized, with no prior knowledge of what this person's Stand could do, she and Jotaro had no point of reference for counterattacking, especially without the use of their own Stands.

The strange lady turned back to Alessi with a sneer. "Rise and shine, you dolt," she muttered as she kicked him. This only served to roll the criminal onto his back as he snored slightly. The woman's lip twisted as she snapped her fingers. "Wake up!"

Alessi's body jolted and shook as if an electrical surge had gone through him before bolting to his feet and saluting. "I'm up, Sarge, please don't—!"

"Can it," the fair-haired individual demanded as she pointed to the two kids across from them, "we've still got work to do."

"A-Ah, of course," Alessi agreed and nodded as he turned to the children, "I was merely waiting for them to lower their guard before I took them out."

The woman's catlike eyes rolled as she scoffed, "They're just _kids_, idiot, and you have an _axe_—" She narrowed her eyes as she observed the hatchet still clutched tightly in the quiet boy's small hands. "—_had_ an axe." She shook her head and pulled out a knife from a hidden pocket inside her cloak. "Whatever, it's nothing a knife won't fix. This'll be over in a second."

As the woman continued to saunter towards them with the blade brandished, Jotaro and Suki backed up into the darker corner of the room. Feeling something shuffle under her feet, the soft-eyed child's eyes darted to the ground to see she had stepped on Jotaro's jacket. The lady missed the quiet eye signal exchanged between the two kids before her vision was suddenly obscured by the heavy coat Suki had thrown at her. The commanding dame fumbled forward and pressed the body of the soft-spoken boy into the dirt, but not before he managed to gash the back of her calf with the axe. The coat—newly cut by the mark the weapon had left—fluttered to the side as the cat-eyed lady screamed in pain. In her agony, she inadvertently tossed the knife a few meters away.

"Stupid _brat_!" she hissed as she dug the heel of her hand into the back of the boy's skull, pushing him more into the ground. As she pressed her knee into his back, the woman pried the axe out of Jotaro's grip. He seemed to be struggling to breathe. "Now, why don't you just be a good boy, and—!" Spotting movement out of the corner of her eye, the lady lowered the axe to Jotaro's neck and snarled at Suki, "Don't even try! Otherwise, your little boyfriend gets it!"

"You already planning on kill him?" the multilingual knight asked plainly.

The domineering woman smirked slightly. "You catch on quick for a pipsqueak," she snarked.

"We're gonna kill him either way," Alessi stated as he stepped toward the weak girl, "but maybe you'd like to die first?"

"D-Dunno, you gonna give enough time to pick?" Suki wondered as she sidled closer to the abandoned knife on the ground.

The lady quirked one eyebrow before her other joined it in realization. "You're _stalling_, aren't you?"

"Stalling?" Suki wondered. "Not stalling anything."

"Yes, you are," the lady responded.

"No, I'm not," the softhearted girl retorted.

"Yes, you are. You're doing it right now," Alessi chimed in as he pointed at her.

Suki folded her arms and appeared to contemplate this for a few moments before asking, "I'm…_stalling_?

"Yes!" shouted Alessi, his voice echoing off the walls of the cavern.

Jotaro shot a deadpan look at Suki, but she refused to make eye contact as she kept prattling, "Stalling?"

"Stalling!" the criminal claimed.

"Use in a sentence?" Suki asked after a moment.

"Helpless to protect herself, the weak, insignificant, little girl continued _stalling _the murder of her ally, even though such efforts were useless," Mariah instructed.

"Think that's just your opinion," Suki replied with a small smirk.

"When you're stalling, you're stalling! There's no _opinion_ about it!" Alessi retorted loudly.

"Not what I was referring to," the stalling girl corrected.

It was only as she felt another cut open on her other thigh that the domineering woman realized Jotaro had pickpocketed a knife from her flowing cloak. As she instinctively redistributed her weight to her other leg, she hissed in pain, giving the powerful boy enough time to shove her off and rush back to Suki's side before Alessi could recapture him with a threatening lunge. Meanwhile, the softhearted knight picked up the knife she had been sidling toward during the conversation.

The kids exchanged a relieved glance before looking back to the pair of assailants. It was as they observed their enemies again that they realized they had not advanced much past the point of the unnamed woman's introduction. If anything, they had _backpedaled_ from their current progress, with the previously downed Alessi conscious once again.

_What do we do now…? We're in the dark again, so we have a bit of an advantage, but we can't see either of their Stands. Now that they know to fight us seriously, I doubt they'll hold them back anymore. How are we even going to deal with this…?_

"All the stalling in the world won't help you," the lady condescended as she struggled to her feet using the hatchet as a support. She handed the axe back to Alessi as she pulled another knife from her cloak and grinned ferociously. "No one is going to find you here before it's too late. I lost the old Joestar and his cowardly friend a long way back. There's no way they'll ever—!"

"_Red Bind!_"

What accompanied that powerful cry was a spiraling wave of flames that encircled the woman and Alessi and forced them to the ground where they stood. Suki and Jotaro looked up to the source of the cry at the opening to the pit to spot two familiar men—one clad in red robes, another was much older. They were accompanied by the silver-haired boy, who now had a towel wrapped around his figure.

"See? I told you those kids would know where they were!" the nearly bare child bragged to the adults.

"Although, we probably could have found them with all of the shouting coming from this pit," the wise man in the red robes replied. The white-haired woman glared at Alessi at this statement. The uncanny criminal whistled innocently.

"I don't think we would've gotten this far if it wasn't for the mirror shard I planted on Mariah, though," a voice that sounded like that of a timid woman added. The woman in the pit, apparently called "Mariah," grimaced at the voice.

"We can argue about who tracked them down later; here, you two, come closer, let's get you out of there," the older man called from above them. Suki and Jotaro sprinted toward the hole's opening. The old man looked like he was trying to reach into the hole with his open palms. The children looked from side to side in a vain attempt to find exactly what he was grasping for.

"Mr. Joestar, they can't see Stands. They're too young, remember?" the robed man reminded him.

"O-Oh, right, here," the elder said. Suddenly, Suki and Jotaro felt something wrap around their torsos and begin to pull them upwards, but they couldn't see the ropes that were clearly hoisting them.

What happened next couldn't be explained fully through Suki's or Jotaro's eyes. However, what Michel saw was Alessi rolling around in the dirt below him in a vain attempt to extinguish the flames. As he did that, he used the light cast by the flames encircling Mariah and himself to summon his Stand. It only became clear too late that Alessi had been resituating himself to grasp his axe with the hands bound in front of him. The uncanny criminal's shadow mirrored his movements. The silhouette projected along the ground poked its axe slightly out of the ground—just enough for Alessi to grab the head with his teeth—and flung its user at the opening. Michel backed away and made to voice a warning to Abdul and Mr. Joestar, but Polnareff was ahead of her.

"G-Guys!" Polnareff cried as the outlaw slammed into the wall of the hole just as Suki and Jotaro were set on the ground nearby.

It took Alessi the split second before he fell back to summon his shadow and turn it sideways—revealing an odd, birdlike appearance to the shape—in order to make contact with both Joseph and Abdul's bodies. In that same split second, Abdul flung a geyser of flame down at the opponent, who was sent streaking down into the pit again.

Michel cursed under her breath as she helped Joseph and Abdul bring the de-aged Stand users to a spot where they could hide. The shy tailor inwardly reminded herself to thank Polnareff for telling everyone about how Alessi's Stand worked beforehand. Even so, she hadn't expected the freakish man to pull something like that.

"Oof!" Polnareff grunted as he suddenly fell to the ground. He turned to Abdul in irritation as he complained, "Hey, be more careful!" The reckless boy's eyes widened at what he saw.

"Okay, Abdul, where should we hide them before things get hairy?" the old man asked. He turned around after the lack of response—involuntarily allowing Suki and Jotaro to see—and shouted, "Oh, no!"

Abdul had shrunk down to the same size as their de-aged comrades. His robes draped loosely and haphazardly over his much smaller body, and a bit of dirt covered his face from the sudden trip. The curling scars that streaked down his face tightened as the younger foreteller examined his smaller body.

"There's no use in running!" Alessi shouted as he came rushing after the fallen boy. As Abdul turned to look at the enemy, he spotted Mariah struggling to climb out of the hole herself using yet another pair of knives she had kept hidden.

"Abdul, come on!" Joseph shouted.

Before Alessi could attack the miniature fortune teller, the younger Abdul summoned Magician's Red, albeit in much smaller stature than he normally was. As the stoic boy swiped his hand through the air, a wave of flames flew forward and latched onto Alessi's clothes. The criminal shrieked and began patting his clothes and rolling on the ground again while complaining about the pyromancer "hitting a sore spot."

"Flames never flee. At my will, they advance," Abdul remarked before Michel picked him up and carried him and Polnareff after Joseph. They finally reached the sidewalk and set the kids down next to an alleyway that was really only wide enough to fit one of them at a time, not including Mr. Joestar.

"Huh, I'm barely short of breath after that. Guess this trip is giving me the exercise I need," Mr. Joestar remarked. He turned to Michel as he pointed to the alley. "You five go through there and hide somewhere safe. I'll take care of this."

Michel huffed a heavy breath as she turned to the elder. "Mr. Joestar, as much as I appreciate it, I can't just let you fight these two alo…" she trailed off as she looked at the man.

"What?" asked Joseph, seeing a similar expression on almost every other child. "Something on my face?" he wondered. Mr. Joestar rubbed a hand over his mouth and was startled to feel, through the thin satin of the gloves he wore, not the rough hairs he had grown used to but instead skin that was baby smooth. "What in the…?"

"Grampa," Jotaro addressed before pointing to a reflective restaurant window decorated with arboreal and floral patterns. Curious, Mr. Joestar stepped over to the window. His eyes were blown wide.

Where the Stand Alessi wielded had taken around ten or twenty years off of Joseph's younger companions when they had touched the shadow only for an instant, the old man had lost perhaps closer to forty-five or fifty years. In the mirror stood his much younger, fitter self from his Hamon-training days. His spiked brown hair poked out slightly from underneath his hat and his green eyes carried a youthful gleam.

At this point in time, only one phrase could come to mind for Mr. Joestar.

"OH MY GOD!" he shouted as he locked eyes with his reflection. A moment of pure shock passed before he placed a hand on his chin and turned his head to the side with a grin.

"M-Mr. Joestar…?" Michel began.

"Are we sure this is _actually _the work of an _enemy_ Stand user?" the much-younger man asked. "I haven't felt this good in _years_."

"Mr. Joestar, please," Michel deadpanned.

"No, I'm telling you!" the loud, youthful Joestar defended as he gestured to Jotaro avidly, "Can you believe I got to see my adorable grandson like this? I _never_ got to see him this young!"

"Mr. Joestar, can we _please_ be serious?" the beleaguered tailor begged as she darted her eyes to the approaching enemy Stand users.

"I _am _being serious!" Mr. Joestar exclaimed as he picked up Jotaro in both hands and held him up to Michel. "Look at him! Look how cute my grandson is!"

"Mr. _Joestar_!" Michel and almost all of the children shouted at Joseph.

"_What_?" he asked with a grin.

"Good grief," Jotaro muttered as he pulled his hat over his eyes.

Michel said nothing and merely pointed to Mariah and Alessi, both of whom wore impatience on their features.

"Are you done blabbering?" Mariah asked as she stepped forward.

"Hm? That's funny," Joseph stated as he set his grandson back down on the ground, "I only seem to remember _you _keeping _us _waiting! But, if you're so insistent on my attacking first, I'll gladly do so!" The wily Hamon-user then proceeded to pull out a pair of the metal children's toys Jotaro and Suki had been given by Hakim.

_Wh-When did he…? _Suki wondered as she patted her pockets.

"Observe," the sprightly youth directed as he swung the toys in such a way that the metal balls moved like pendulums, clacking noisily against each other. "Not everyone I meet gets a taste of the patented 'Clacker Volley.'"

The adversaries exchanged a quizzical look before turning back to Joseph, who had begun swinging and twirling the clackers around himself much like an expert wielding nunchaku. Assuming he was acting this way to serve as a distraction, Michel turned and addressed the children, "Go down that path and find somewhere safe to hide; we'll be there shortly." She looked to Abdul and Polnareff as she advised, "And you keep them safe from any other enemy Stand users. Understand?"

The kids nodded and began to escape into the alley. The younger Abdul hung back slightly and took a deep breath before summoning Magician's Red. The avian Stand gestured pridefully as embers danced on his fingertips before a two-meter-tall wall of flames rose from the dirt and blocked the path. The tailor could vaguely see the stoic fortune teller nod to himself before following his younger companions. Michel turned back around to see the enemies advancing towards them. As this occurred, Joseph finally decided to stop performing and threw the clackers—which seemed to spark with some unearthly energy—at Mariah and Alessi. The two easily ducked under the projectiles, but, in a feat the observing tailor could barely comprehend, the clackers returned along the path of their trajectory and smashed right into the backs of the enemies' skulls. Even so, this attack only seemed to stagger them.

"Right, new plan!" Joseph shouted before subsequently turning and crashing through the reflective restaurant window behind him. Michel looked between the new wreckage and the two enemy Stand users recovering in front of her with panic etched freshly on her face before bounding into the building.

In his rush, Mr. Joestar had apparently interrupted a quaint breakfast going on between a couple; the man and woman stared with a mix of shock and anger at the strange tourist who had toppled their table. Michel carefully entered through the door and tread around the damage the younger elder had left while Mr. Joestar stood closer to the middle of the room and addressed the civilians, "It would be in your best interest to leave now, please!"

Michel turned to the open window as the slightly battered Mariah and the thoroughly thrashed Alessi stomped towards them. "What's the plan?" she asked while ignoring the annoyed chattering of the restaurant-goers surrounding her. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted a man who seemed severely frightened as he jolted at his table before slumping over it.

Joseph scanned the floor and bar area as he rose to his feet and dusted off various bits of eggs and ta'ameya that had stuck to his clothes in his entrance. "I'm not saying I have a plan," he started before making eye contact with the tailor, "but I'm saying I have a plan."

"That answers nothing," Michel sighed. "Okay, can you at least see Stands?" At the wily warrior's beleaguered pause, she quickly explained, "I'll try and warn you if either Stand gets close, but keep your distance from the man with ridiculous hair extensions and be careful not to touch any walls. The woman's Stand will turn you into one big magnet after shocking you; the man's Stand, which also seems to be his shadow, will de-age you. We could conceivably come back from getting hit by Mariah's Stand, but Alessi's would take us out, easily."

"Is there any way to get rid of the effects?" Joseph wondered.

"I think if you get far enough away from Mariah, the effects of her Stand will wear off. I'm not so sure about Alessi's Stand, though." The tailor removed her pistol from her pocket and took out the magazine. Counting eight bullets, she cursed herself for not thinking to pack an extra magazine in her pocket. As she cocked her gun at the approaching assailants, much to the apprehension voiced by the customers around them, Michel advised, "You might also want to grab another weapon."

Joseph nodded. "I'll check the kitchen!" he announced before running in that direction.

"Wait, Mr. Jo—" the tailor cut herself off with an irritated groan before Alessi and Mariah reached the window. Then an employee approached Michel and seemed to ask her to leave. Ignoring him, the artist summoned her Stand and willed Privacy to break the decorative glass covering the light hanging over the bar.

This inexplicable damage threw the restaurant-goers into a frenzy, and all manner of men, women, and children fled either out of the establishment or the kitchen as screams of ghosts or snipers overlapped from the paranoid and superstitious alike. All fled except the one man who was still slumped over his table. Michel vaguely heard Joseph shouting about things getting "too cramped to do anything" in the kitchen, but she refused to retreat from the approaching enemies as Privacy clutched the naked light bulb in her pitch-black palm. With a burning sensation that was reflected in her user's own hand, the Stand redirected that light out of her other hand, which was outstretched toward the approaching enemies, like a higher-intensity strobe light.

Alessi howled in pain—presumably blinded—while Mariah ducked behind the wall below the window. When the uncanny criminal tried to fumble his way into the restaurant by sidling through the broken window, Michel aimed her gun downward and fired. The bullet punched through Alessi's leg, and he yowled and stumbled back through the window before he landed on the sidewalk once more. Mariah poked her head upward and leapt through the window. It was only as the cat-eyed electromancer got closer that Michel discovered the reason she was immune to the light; Mariah had donned her sunglasses before the initial flash.

The tailor shot at Mariah—a bullet aimed for her shoulder—but the cloaked woman dove under a table. She was surprisingly nimble despite her leg's injuries. As Michel moved to fire again, Mariah tipped the steel table over to block the next projectile as the food and condiments splattered on the floor. The lascivious woman rose to her feet—taking the table with her as a makeshift shield—and charged at Michel. In a panic, the tailor backpedaled and climbed onto the barstool behind her in an attempt to retreat behind the bar, but she landed incorrectly on her hip as she slid over the counter onto the floor.

Michel quickly bolted to her feet and aimed her pistol at Mariah, but the gun was ripped from her hands in what felt like a sick case of déjà vu. As the tailor lunged after the weapon, her hand landed on the bartop: right atop a small outlet Mariah had set. Electricity coursed through the hapless artist's body for half a second before she flew back against the wine shelf behind her. After shaking the dizziness out of her head, Michel saw that her pistol had landed on the back of the man still slumped at his table. Only when the tailor took note to hear him whimpering did she understand that the cat-eyed woman had likely given the man magnetic properties sometime after she had first entered, and being in such close proximity had forced those properties to skyrocket in efficacy.

Hearing the cat-eyed lady's laugh as she climbed over the bar and thrust a knife at her, Michel reached for the closest object, an unopened wine bottle, and blocked the attack. The blade crashed through the bottle, which exploded into fruity alcohol and glass shards. Michel jolted as she felt something attach itself like a leech to her back; the sensation staggered her enough that she only barely dodged a stab at her eye. The tailor winced as the knife grazed her ear, and she grabbed for whatever had stuck to her.

While Michel used one arm to reach around her back, her other caught Mariah's arm as the cat-eyed runaway stabbed forward again. Michel kneed the cloaked lady in the stomach as she finally closed her fist around the foreign object. After shoving Mariah away, the tailor brought the item around to her front to see it was quite a large bottle opener. As the runaway dame attacked with the knife again, Michel parried somewhat unskillfully, and the knife's magnetic attraction to her body begat a slice along her thumb in recompense for her lack of care.

"Didn't think a seamstress would have such a weakness for sharp objects!" Mariah cackled as she thrust the blade forward once more.

"Wh-Why take such glee in attacking me?!" Michel asked desperately between pants and parries as she stepped back. "You gave me all that advice, and for what? Just to kill me with no remorse?"

"Oh, I did enjoy our chat. _Very_ much," drawled the fair-haired woman, not even short of breath as she continued to swing her weapon methodically, "but, then you got in my way. That means you got in Dio's way. I'm just choosing the lesser of two evils, here."

"What is this major obsession you all seem to have with this guy?!" the tailor cried as she stumbled slightly and received a slice to her already-injured palm as she again failed to completely parry the magnetic blade. She hissed in pain before continuing, "Is he really so great that you'd kill innocent people for him?!"

"Oh, sweet, naïve, little Brenda," Mariah lilted as her efforts forced the tailor into a corner. As her back hit the drywall, Michel caught the knife with the opening of her tool and attempted to shove both objects away from her. However, Mariah was much stronger—as was the magnetism—and the catty woman pushed the knife towards Michel's chest with minimal effort. "It's unfortunate you'll die before you ever meet him."

_D-Die…? _Michel's fight-or-flight response kicked in, prolonging the struggle. _N-No! I can't die here! I have to…I have to make it back to—!_

A sudden shout of rage above her interrupted Michel's train of thought and caused her to stare up at Alessi, who now stood over her on the bar counter. His hatchet was raised high above his head as he stared unblinkingly down at Michel; however, he didn't appear to be staring _at _her.

"Back off, Alessi, this is _my_ mark!" Mariah relented slightly to argue with her comrade. She turned to look up at him as she scolded, "So just be a good boy, and—!" Her jaw dropped at the sight of the cloudiness she now saw in her ally's eyes.

"You won't get away with this," Alessi murmured. He appeared to shake as tears streamed down his face. His expression twisted into terrifying animosity as he swung the weapon down and shrieked, "You won't _get away_!"

The gaze of the criminal's sightless eyes paralyzed Michel to the spot. She couldn't even scream as she realized the damage her initial attack had caused.

At that moment, an explosion of white powder coupled with what looked to be the top of a salt shaker rocketed into Alessi's jaw. The man cried out as he stumbled off the bar and fell onto his back. Mariah and Michel saw Joseph had returned with a frying pan and an empty, lidless salt shaker that sparkled slightly.

"That's really the best you could come up with, Mr. Joestar?" Michel groaned.

"'The best I could come up with' is still a good plan, lady!" Joseph retorted brazenly.

Mariah smirked and turned back to Joseph. Then, she laughed. "Really? You're going to beat me with that?"

"Heh. I can _try_," Mr. Joestar replied as he flipped the cooking instrument around one finger. He accidentally swung the pan against his temple and yelled in pain, "Oh, no!"

A fiendish grin split across Mariah's face before she lunged at Joseph. Mr. Joestar recovered quickly and blocked her knife with the frying pan. He parried strike after strike with the instrument and continuously backpedaled as Mariah advanced with a sultry giggle. Michel, meanwhile, carefully edged over the bar and stepped over Alessi, who still writhed in pain from the salt making contact with his eyes.

"Didn't your little friend enlighten you to my abilities? How's a _metal _weapon supposed to _help _you?" the lascivious woman condescended with a glare and a strike poised to kill.

"Heh, for a woman supposedly 'well-acquainted' with her 'abilities,' you certainly don't pay much attention to what your adversaries are wielding!" Joseph taunted as he guarded with the cooking utensil.

"Step back!" Michel warned as she plastered herself to the wall.

The wily warrior acquiesced to her instruction. Even so, Joseph stepped on a new spawn of the outlet Mariah had originally set in front of him. He wiped the smirk off his enemy's face and stole it for his own as he boasted, "These shoes have rubber soles! Stand or not, if your attack involves electricity, there's no beating cold, hard science! Beyond that," he continued as he brandished the frying pan, "this baby is titanium through and through. Unlike other metals, it doesn't react to magnets! It doesn't even show up on magnetic resonance imaging!" Joseph blinked as he realized aloud, "How do I remember that, but not the names of half the people I came here with…?"

Mariah hissed, "Stop playing the fool!" and shoved her knife in his face.

Joseph dodged nimbly, only losing a few hairs in the process, and snickered, "I don't think _you're _going to be the miracle worker who changes that, ma'am."

Michel made her way over to the prone man. Joseph parried another stab from the catty woman, slid his pan past the blade, and thwacked her forehead with the titanium weapon with a resounding clang. Silverware from the floor and the standing tables flew at the timid tailor from all angles, but even as the cutlery cut and stabbed her skin, she covered her face and kept moving to her weapon. Mariah shrugged off what would be a debilitating blow and growled at her assailant before slicing his upper arm. Michel pried the handgun from the unconscious man's body, only for the slick weapon to slip from her grip and attach itself to her temple. Mr. Joestar knocked the knife from Mariah's hand and pinned her to the bar.

"Hah! Like you're gonna get the upper hand on me now? Fat chance," Mariah growled as she pulled another knife from her cloak with her free hand and pointed it squarely at the man's throat.

Joseph smirked and said, "Your next line is, 'Unfortunately, you have to die.'"

"Unfortunately, you have to die," Mariah threatened. Her eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

Then, Joseph moved to the side. In that split second, Mariah saw Michel. The shy artist struggled to pry the pistol from her head, and, in that moment of weakness, the lascivious woman shoved past Joseph and dashed toward the tailor. Michel's eyes widened at the brandished knife glinting in the lamplight shortly before the blade slashed through the air where she once was. Mariah smirked as she advanced on her target.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Joseph shouted as he yanked on a cannon fuse that he had meticulously tied to the chains dangling from Mariah's miniskirt. The initial pull staggered her.

"The hell are you _doing_, you dolt?!" Mariah snapped as she twisted to look back at Joseph. Refusing to be restrained, she lunged forward and staggered her captor just enough with her surprising show of strength, enough to take a step and slash at Michel's throat.

Just as the quiet tailor managed to rip the gun off her head, she fired the pistol and winced harshly. The bullet landed in Mariah's shoulder and forced her back with a grunt. Joseph yanked the enemy Stand user back and pinned the woman's wrists to the counter.

"Looks like your little trick didn't work," he bragged with a smirk.

But Mariah smirked right back. "So you _say_."

Then, the bullet that was in the enemy Stand user's shoulder began to pull slightly out of the wound. Alongside this, what looked to be several nuts, bolts, and screws concealed in her cleavage were pulled by some sort of magnetic force toward the hapless tailor. The projectiles shot straight toward the frail woman. The bullet, in particular, was returning to sender: right for Michel's head.

"No!" Joseph shouted as he lunged from the bar with his frying pan in hand. He blocked the bullet that had become magnetized to Michel—alongside a few of Mariah's makeshift weapons—but the impact from the projectile ripped the instrument from his hand. The quiet tailor couldn't even react before the pan made contact with her skull, toppling her. The unimpeded stream of metal projectiles that flew from Mariah's body continued forward and cut along the tailor's body as she fell to the floor. "H-Hey, lady!" Joseph called. Michel didn't respond. She didn't even try to reach for the pistol that had fallen from her grip.

As the wily warrior stepped toward his ally, a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around his legs and forced him to the ground, onto an outlet Mariah had spawned. Joseph jolted, but was prevented from flying back by Alessi, who pinned him to the ground and shouted, "I got 'im! I _got _'im!"

"Alessi, you couldn't have used your Stand _at all _to give me a little bit of help back there?" Mariah chastised.

The uncanny criminal grimaced as he muttered, "What am I supposed to do if I can't even see my own Stand?"

The cat-eyed lady pursed her lips.

"Hey, you're a bit of a lazy dolt if you let your partner do all of the work for you," Joseph explained from his uncomfortable position.

"What did you say? Say that again, I dare you!" Alessi choked as he brandished the axe again.

"I'm just saying I wouldn't blame the lady if she didn't understand why the hell she's been paired with you," Mr. Joestar continued.

"You're not wrong," Mariah admitted with a shrug. Alessi looked toward her voice with a betrayed expression.

"But, just because you screwed up and got your ass handed to you by a couple of kids _doesn't _mean you should just sit around like a lump and let your superiors do all the work for you," Joseph suggested.

"But, I'm actually _her _superior," Alessi muttered.

"Semantics. Regardless," the captive man continued, "you don't want to sit around feeling useless, do you? That's the worst kind of feeling."

Alessi appeared to contemplate this for a few moments before he spoke, "I…don't want to."

"Exactly, see? Don't you wanna get up and do something worthy of your cause? Even if you're held back by something, you should keep going!" Joseph encouraged.

"Yeah…Yeah, you're right!" the strange outlaw agreed.

"Alessi…" Mariah warned.

"Yeah! In fact, you should stand up, get out there, and go do something right now!" Mr. Joestar advised.

"Yeah!" Alessi whooped as he rose to his feet. "I should—!"

"Alessi, you _fucking _tool," Mariah hissed. She shoved her superior back down onto their captive, forcing the wind out of Joseph's lungs. "You really _are_ useless if you just cave in to the enemy like that! Don't you understand he was just trying to coerce you into freeing him?" Alessi grimaced before glaring down at Joseph. "Now we can get back to business. Once we deal with you, we can take care of those kids, wherever they decided to hide behind that fire wall the Egyptian guy set up."

"Maybe you can just set up Bastet for one of the dumb non-users to stumble over and take the rest of them out that way," Alessi suggested as he lowered the axe to Joseph's neck. The weapon's blade was kept only centimeters from Joseph's magnetized flesh by Alessi's firm grip.

"Tempting," Mariah agreed with a mischievous smile. "or I could even get the users to touch it. After all, your Stand made them forget their memories, so they probably won't remember what mine even does. Plus, you know what they say—"

"Curiosity killed the cat," Joseph said in unison with the woman.

"H-Huh?" Mariah asked.

"You guys sure know how to run your mouths," Joseph expressed with a lighthearted laugh, "but, thankfully, that gave my present for you guys just enough time to go off."

"W-What present?" Alessi asked.

"Try reaching into one of your numerous knife pockets, ma'am," the wily warrior instructed.

Mariah did as asked and pulled out a Coco Cola can with a stream of smoke coming out of it. The last thing Mariah saw was Joseph grinning at them both before everything went white.

"Alessi, _kill him_!" Mariah commanded.

"Right!" Alessi agreed as he brought the axe back and swung it down over and over again.

The homemade smoke bomb did not last long; the mist dissipated in about fifteen seconds thanks to the open window. However, when she could see again, Mariah saw Alessi was no longer pinning a bloody Joseph to the floor, but a giant bloody slab of meat that looked like it belonged in a butcher's shop. The uncanny criminal rubbed his eyes as the smoke faded.

"H-Huh?!" Alessi cried as he stared at the slab of meat. "Where did he…I mean, how did…?"

"Wh—" Mariah started. With a growl she shoved Alessi to the ground with her heel. Despite his whimpered, "ow," she shrieked, "You overdramatic _dolt_! That stupid attack of Brenda's only worked like a flashbang, but _of course_ you had to be a big baby and act like you'd been blinded forever by a bit of dust in your eyes!" She folded her arms and muttered, "Did you _want _me to worry needlessly?"

"Uh…did it work?" Alessi asked.

The woman fumed before pressing harder into the body of her superior. "Why would I worry over an incompetent bastard like you?!" she shouted. Darting her eyes to the open window only returned the view of the morning horizon and an empty restaurant. As suddenly as that literal bomb had dropped, the man known as Joseph Joestar was gone, and the unconscious body of Michel with him. "If it hadn't been for you, we wouldn't have lost the enemy!" Mariah fisted harshly at her short locks of hair and hissed, "God_dammit_! Where did he _go_?!"

* * *

Joseph ran as fast as he could away from the restaurant. As adrenaline pumped through his veins, he felt his body weighed down by his ally's pistol as well as the other resources he had managed to procure from the home improvement store next door. The objects attached themselves snugly to his figure—a sure sign that the Stand of the woman called Mariah was still in effect. He knew he had to get away, but he also had to make certain that the kids wouldn't be attacked by the two villains before they recuperated from the enemies' abilities.

The wily warrior glanced to the unconscious ally in his arms and grimaced at the bruise that was already swelling where the pan had made contact with her skull. As he turned a corner at the end of the street, he absentmindedly realized that he didn't recall the woman's name.

A blond man with a cleft chin slammed into Joseph at that moment; neither man had seen the other soon enough before the impact. Considering the speed at which both individuals were going, the sudden stop caused them to fall back onto the ground.

"Dammit, watch where the hell yer goin', ya damn putz!" the Southern blond snapped as he sat up. Rubbing his head, the Southern-speaking man immediately looked to the woman in the brunet's arms. "M-Michelle!" the blond yelped. Seeing him stumble towards them, the brunet stood shakily and took a step back from the newcomer.

Hol Horse stopped short as he noted the caution the other man seemed to take. _I feel like I've seen this guy before,_ the gunman thought as his eyes darted from the man's dirt-stained dress shoes to the fedora perched haphazardly on his head, _but where? _He dismissed the question and refocused his attention on the prone tailor. "What the hell…happened to her?" he asked.

The brunet glanced between the woman in his arms and the blond before responding, "She got into an accident."

Hol Horse examined the blood smeared along Michel's skin and the various metal objects affixed to her body. _I only know one dame that coulda done this… _"Don't seem like no accident," the cowboy mused. "From the way you was runnin', I'd fancy you both'd gotten _attacked_."

"Ah, you got me! Honestly, it was a pretty obvious lie," the Englishman admitted with a laugh. "I gotta ask, though: what do you need her for?"

The color drained from Hol Horse's face. "What?"

"Oh, no, it's nothing," the strange man shrugged before continuing, "just that the way you've been carrying yourself, it seems more like you _need_ her alive than you _want_ her alive. Kind of like those scenarios in some movies where the hero has to keep someone safe; otherwise, their life is forfeit to the mob or something. But, considering you weren't observant enough to stop from running into someone else, can you really call yourself a hero?"

_Says the asswipe that ran into _me_, first. _The cowardly cowboy grit his teeth. "Enough with the psycho-anal bullshit and listen here," Hol Horse seethed as he stepped into the brunet's personal space, "ya got that right, I _need _her safe. Considerin' you were fixin' to take a turn not even halfway down the street, I'd say you were aimin' to hover around where ya got attacked. Hell if I know why ya'd try to, unless ya had a death wish, but lemme tell ya straight: y'ain't gonna find a hidin' spot for Michelle that those varmints won't come across here, and the magnetism's jus' gon' get worse the longer she sticks 'round that witch. Like it or not, yer best bet is to let me take 'er somewhere safe while you finish whatever the hell needs doing that requires ya hang around. So, hand. Her. Over."

The Englishman took a few steps back. Hol Horse stepped forward in turn and reached out futilely to the unconscious tailor before dropping his hand. His fingernails dug into his palms as he gritted his teeth. _I can't let her… _"Please…" the words were past the gunman's lips before he could stop them, "I'm…I'm beggin' ya, here." He took a deep breath and pleaded, "I can't…let her die here."

Joseph's eyebrows rose. Whatever he saw in the other man's shift in demeanor, the wily warrior was convinced this was the only choice he could take if he wanted this woman to see the next day. Joseph gently placed her in the blond's arms.

Mr. Joestar thought he might have been seeing things, but for a moment, he believed he saw the Southern man's grip tighten protectively around the woman's shoulder.

"Hey." Joseph was pulled from his thoughts by the voice of the other man. The man with the Southern accent was surprisingly serious as he spoke, "Thank you."

"Just make sure she _stays _safe, got it?" Joseph retaliated. "You're supposed to look out for her, right?"

"Don't tell me how to do my job!" the reluctant caretaker retorted before turning and sprinting down the street back the way he had come.

"Okay," Joseph reassured himself as he looked around the corner and fell into a jog as dust kicked up from his pace, "let's look for—"

All at once, the objects attached to his body felt much heavier than before and swiftly yanked him to the earth. He heard an arrogant laugh behind him, and casting his eyes in that direction revealed Mariah, who was cackling at his plight. The somehow-unblinded Alessi followed her with a condescending smirk. "And here I thought you'd actually be _smart _and flee from here! Guess I got my hopes up too much!" snickered Mariah.

The two continued to approach as Joseph's face hit the dirt. He coughed slightly at the sand and grimaced up at his assailants before darting his eyes to the empty space beneath the raised building, the restaurant further down the road, and the pastel-colored building where they had found the small silver-haired boy in succession before turning his attention back to Mariah and Alessi. _Closer…_ he thought as his mind pawed through the equipment still attached to his body. _Just a bit closer…_

"Wait," Mariah commanded as she held her arm out in front of her ally. "He probably wants us to get closer. Think of how well that went last time."

"Well, then what should we do?" Alessi whined.

"Just throw the fucking axe at him. Even if your aim is shit, the magnetism will do the rest," the fair-haired woman retorted.

"R-Right..." the battered man accepted and raised his weapon.

_Guess I'll have to take up that old trick I used back in the day… _Joseph thought, _if I can persuade a demi-god to give me a bit more time to live, what's a couple of _Cabinet of Dr. Caligari _rejects?_

"And _don't_ get distracted by him this time!" Mariah added, "His words mean nothing. You know that now, right?"

Alessi nodded. "I won't listen to a word," he assured.

Just as the wily warrior opened his mouth to speak, a deep, boisterous laugh rang out from the rooftop of the raised building. Looking to the sound of the voice, the two Stand users and Hamon-user observed an American man with a luscious mane of black hair and blue, spotted boxing shorts. A tattoo of crossed boxing gloves was imprinted proudly on his puffed chest, just under a cape that had been tied over his shoulders.

"Fear not," the strange man supplied as his laughter subsided, "for Major Spring is here to provide an assist!"

Noticing Alessi lower the axe slightly in distraction, Mariah growled and unsheathed two knives from her cloak. "If you want something done right, do it yourself," she muttered before tossing the blades directly for their downed opponent.

However, in that pause, the boxing enthusiast leapt down in front of Joseph and enveloped the pair in a dry dirt cloud. The knives pierced the dusty smokescreen, but the reverberating clanging sound that reached everyone's ears expressed that they had not found their mark. As the boisterous boxer became visible once more, the curled right arm of his sky-blue Stand, Mama SKYO—manifesting as two spring-like arms over his own with boxing gloves attached to the ends— appeared to have cushioned his fall and subsequently shielded the fallen Joestar from the fatal blades, which Major Spring held tightly in his other hand. The eyebrows of the boxing enthusiast shot up as he noticed Alessi. Taking the uncanny criminal's appearance into account, the Major realized openly, "Oh, _reindeer _guy! I get it now!"

"What," Alessi deadpanned with a bland look.

Mariah folded her arms. "Ellelle, what do you think you're doing? Did you go off the deep end after you left the mansion?"

"Yeah, you're no almighty symbol of justice! Far from it!" Alessi chimed in as he shouldered his hatchet.

Ellelle took a deep breath and stood up fully. He passed the knives he held to his right hand and stared at them thoughtfully. "…Major Spring takes a low blow…but he presses on as he argues back"—the man puffed out his chest—"I may have jumped headfirst off the deep end, but not in the way you think!" he laughed. "Lord Dio turned me into a monster. I thought I had to be that monster to get them back, but"—he smirked and threw the knives off into the distance—"I don't want them to come home to a monster."

"Well, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth," Joseph chimed in as he easily rose to his feet, much to Mariah's chagrin. "Makes my job a bit easier if I don't have to cramp up while I keep pretending that her magnetism has slowed me down that much. Thanks for the assist."

"It's not a problem!" Major Spring replied with a chuckle. "You guys want to take down Dio. If I want to get my family back, then he's gotta go down!"

Ellelle untied his cape—a shoddy beach blanket on closer inspection—and put out his right hand. Joseph grinned and shook his new ally's hand.

"Well, isn't that just dandy?" Mariah remarked with a click of her tongue. She readied two more blades in her hands as she took a nimble stance. "Looks like we'll have to kill the Joestar's group _and _knock some sense into you." Alessi lowered into a more aggressive posture at her side.

Major Spring put his hands on his hips and laughed. Joseph raised an eyebrow at the boxer's continuously pleasant mood until the boxer's laughter subsided with a smirk. "Oh, you can very well try," he taunted.

With that, the boxer lunged forward toward the adversaries while the Joestar hung back. Alessi started forward and swiped at Ellelle's head with the axe. "What a _revolutionary _technique Reindeer Guy starts with," Ellelle announced as the boxer easily ducked underneath the swing and grabbed the reindeer guy's torso, "but it won't be enough to stop Major Spring!" With a grunt, he tossed his male adversary over himself toward Joseph. The uncanny criminal was sent sprawling onto the dirt as Mariah came in with one of her knives. "Looks like Mariah draws first blood!" the boxing enthusiast continued as the blade cut open his cheek. Major Spring summoned Mama SKYO over his left arm and slung a jab into the woman's stomach. He sprung out his arm to shove her into the raised building, the wall of which shattered like glass from the impact of her body. The people within shouted in surprise and fright.

"Heh, taking on a champion like me was not your first mistake, but one of many!" Major Spring taunted.

Alessi's grip on his hatchet tightened as he felt it pull slightly out of his palm toward Joseph. The immoral outlaw stood up as he eyed up the wily warrior. Joseph stepped back and called to his ally, "Hey, Major! You've got this handled, right?"

"Hah, the ref hasn't called for the end of a round, but the plucky youth shouts out like Major Spring can hear him over his overwhelming advantage?!" Ellelle retorted with a laugh.

"Guess I'll take that as a yes," Mr. Joestar began while continuing to backpedal from Alessi, who grinned wickedly. Joseph then turned and broke out into a full sprint as he called behind him, "Cuz I just remembered I've got somewhere to be!"

"You're running _again_?!" Alessi shouted. He turned back to Ellelle and Mariah, the latter of whom was propping herself up among the wreckage that opened itself up to a kitchen within. "Mariah, don't you—"

"Don't you _dare _lose our mark, Alessi!" Mariah spat as she glared at her companion. "If you really want to prove yourself, you can go take care of Joseph in his weakened state now easily, can't you? Especially with that thing we found in that store next to the restaurant…"

Alessi's eyes widened. "But, Mariah, I…but, you're—"

"Just _go_!" she commanded as her expression twisted into a sneer. "This mook is nothing to an Egypt 9 Glory God, and that Joestar is nothing to you!"

Something hardened in Alessi's expression before he turned and dashed in the direction Joseph had fled. As he ran, the uncanny criminal put away his hatchet and he removed something black from his jacket that glinted ominously in the sunlight.

"You sure that wasn't a poor choice, little lady?" Ellelle asked. "Major Spring has only gone head-to-head with a gal of your size once, and she only came out on top because the odds were in her favor!"

Mariah sultrily giggled as she retorted, "Unfortunately, you're the one outmatched here," before beginning to flee out the side door of the building.

The boxer summoned his Stand and shot a spectral arm out to grab the runaway dame by the wrist. The spring on the ghostly appendage retracted and yanked the woman closer so Ellelle could sock her in the jaw with his free hand. As his hand came in for another punch, Mariah armed a knife and slashed at Ellelle's hand through the springy Stand that covered it, and Ellelle released his grip to avoid the attack. While his opponent stepped back, the boxer advanced toward her, but he was aware all too late of the electrical socket that had spawned beneath his feet. Ellelle couldn't even take the time to register confusion as a thunderous current surged through his veins.

* * *

Joseph continued to rush down the street away from the pair of adversaries—his mind casting about for a scheme—until a gunshot from behind him forced him to dash into an alley. He barely dodged a bullet from what, out of the corner of his eye, looked to be a long-barreled handgun. The Joestar continued down the alley until he reached the opposite street; then he turned back to see Alessi shimmying into the same passage he had just exited with his new handgun poised to shoot.

Joseph retaliated to this threat by reaching into his shirt and pulling out the cape he had picked up from Ellelle. "_Oy vey, oy vey_!" he taunted as he waved the significantly smaller blanket in the air.

"It's_ 'ol__é,'_ dipshit! How stupid do you have to be to make fun of the guy with the gun here?" Alessi scolded.

The wily warrior smirked. "I mean, I don't think it's hard to believe you're bullheaded if you look like a bull," he rationalized.

"You—!"

Before Alessi could pull the trigger, Joseph breathed with focus and channeled sparks of energy through his hands into the cape. The Joestar yanked the cape back, and the almost invisible threads he had unwoven from the shoddy blanket wound around his hapless captive. "_Overdrive_!" he shouted as the sparks rocketed down the fabric and into Alessi's body. The uncanny criminal shrieked in pain as the solar energy zapped through his body—like every nerve ending he had was being singed by the sun. Even so, through the pain, the enemy aimed the gun at Joseph and fired. Mr. Joestar blocked the bullet with the frying pan he had pocketed from the restaurant and continued to run as he left the scraps of fabric behind.

"What's even the _point_ of all your running?!" Alessi shouted as he stood up shakily before dashing after Joseph. "It's not like you're going anywhere _productive_!"

Joseph looked over his shoulder to see Alessi cocking the gun again as he exited the alley and fervidly chased after him. With a pained grimace, Joseph yanked out several strands of his own hair and filled them with Hamon. "_Ripple Hair Attack_!" he cried as he tossed the hairs behind himself in a sort of shield that blocked the bullets as they came whizzing toward him. As Alessi barreled toward him and followed the trajectory of the bullets—so too did he fall victim to the attack. As the sparking hairs stuck to his face and body, they slowed him considerably and almost blinded him. "Like I'd feel obligated to answer you!" the Joestar shot back.

Suddenly, a loud, agonized howl shuddered through the air from where Joseph had fled. In a pained moment of realization, Mr. Joestar halted abruptly; he knew who the voice belonged to.

"Major Spring!" he shouted back in vain. Seeing his chance, Alessi wiped the hairs from his face and lunged forward with Set to grasp at his prey.

A pit opened in the uncanny criminal's gut as he saw Joseph grin over his shoulder.

All of a sudden, he felt a gash open in his legs as if each appendage had been slashed with a sharp blade. He turned to see what had caused the injury; however, he was immediately blinded by something thick and gluey that spattered across his face.

Three children, one of whom wore a blue cap and another of whom was the silver-haired boy from before, came further out of the alley they had been hiding in with their mudballs and slingshots brandished. "Squad two, advance!" the blue-capped boy ordered. Alessi couldn't wipe the mud from his face fast enough to see three more kids, one of whom wore a white hat and sported a unibrow while yet another wore red robes. The red-robed child strafed around the enemy and moved over to the silver-haired boy as the white-hatted girl and her friend launched themselves at the older man and toppled him to the ground.

As Abdul dashed over to Polnareff's group, he advised to the boy with the blue cap, "Pull the squad back!" The de-aged fortune teller then summoned Magician's Red and, as soon as the children were clear of the enemy's body, he shouted, "Red Bind!" and restrained Alessi's limbs with intense whips of flame.

"You sure you should be shouting stuff like that so openly?" Polnareff asked in hushed French.

"Stay focused, Polnareff," Abdul advised in turn. Magician's Red began to exhale embers into the air.

"Okay!" the silver-haired boy responded as he brought out Silver Chariot once more and skewered the flames. The knightly Stand swirled his blade amidst the roiling embers, until his rapier glowed red like a newly-smithed blade. "_Merci_, Abdul!" Polnareff thanked as he directed his smaller Stand toward the enemy. Silver Chariot slashed his near molten blade several times at the downed adversary with almost blinding speed. Even at its much more miniscule size, the burning puncture marks left behind by every swing of the sword were far from insignificant.

"Please…Have mercy…!" Alessi whimpered.

"After all you've done? Like hell!" Polnareff rebuked. Abdul nodded to Joseph, who nodded in turn. Seeing this interaction, the silver-haired boy responded, "Hah? We're leaving it to him?" Abdul gave the whining Polnareff a deadpan look. Joseph started walking toward Alessi and removed the clackers he had reclaimed from his shirt and began to twirl them about.

Alessi's shadow stretched and moved towards the approaching Joestar. Polnareff warned, "Watch out!"

The young Joestar leapt forward-his feet missing the shadow by millimeter as he whipped the clackers in one hand toward Alessi's skull. He followed up with his other fist and shouted, "_Sunlight Yellow Overdrive_!" A mass of sparks as bright as the sun flowed from Joseph's punch into Alessi. The uncanny criminal finally gave one more guttural shriek of pain before he went silent and his eyes glazed over just as the Joestar tumbled over him onto the enemy's other side.

Taking a breath, Joseph called out to the children who seemed to have observed the last few moments of the fight with varying levels of confusion, "You kids should get home. Let me and my other adult friends handle this." The girl in the white hat walked up to the boy in the blue cap and squeezed his shoulder. The boy nodded to her and then to Joseph before turning and directing his friends away from the finally collapsed Alessi. It seems the kids couldn't have been asked to leave soon enough.

Joseph felt his previous burst of energy from his de-aging wane as though the first chill of winter had reached his bones. A weak smile crossed his lips as he reached up to his face and once again felt the rough hairs of his silver beard. The old man cast his gaze to the sky with a sigh that felt like a leaden weight.

"Mr. Joestar?" Joseph turned to Abdul at the sound of his name and saw the fortune teller had reverted back to his original state as had Polnareff; however, the silver-haired man was still only wearing a towel.

"Why haven't you gone to get your clothes yet?" Mr. Joestar asked plainly.

"That was _my _question, but he refused to give me a straight answer," Abdul sighed, "so, I thought I would ask you, but you appeared to be deep in thought."

"Uh, yeah," Joseph confessed, "I was just…reminiscing, I guess."

The fiery fortune teller's lips quirked up gently in understanding. He turned back to the confused Frenchman and pressed, "Look, I know there might be other people in that building we saw you come from, but I really think you're making this out to be a bigger issue than it's worth."

"Says the guy who's freaking out about my lack of clothing," Polnareff muttered.

"Saying you're a tourist can only get you so far!" the stoic pyromancer reprimanded. "Do you _want_ to be arrested again?"

"Okay, okay! Fine! I'll go get them!" the reckless Frenchman huffed. Under his breath he muttered to himself, "Just don't go to that room, and it should be fine."

As Polnareff walked off, Joseph asked his friend, "What happened to Jotaro and Suki? I thought they escaped with you."

"They did, but they ran back after a few minutes. They're together, and Alessi's Stand should have worn off by now, so they should be fine, but," Abdul responded as he brought his hand to his chin, "Suki said something about helping someone called 'The Major' out. They left behind the night-vision goggles they had been wearing, so I can't imagine they'll be returning to that pit we found them in; however, that still leaves an innumerable amount of places they could be in this city."

Mr. Joestar cast his gaze back to where Major Spring had initially saved him. He swallowed thickly and expressed, "I know where they'll be. But first—" He looked to Alessi. "—we should do something about him."

* * *

Mariah's statement about being unmatched was partially true, to an extent. Even with the time it was taking for the magnetism affecting Ellelle's body to surge, she still nimbly wove around Major Spring's punches. Her knife found its target along his skin without hitting anything vital; yet, nothing that occurred seemed to interrupt his colored commentary.

"God, don't you ever shut up?" Mariah snarled as she swept her knife towards Ellelle's chest.

The boxer hopped back with a smirk, "Don't _you _ever run out of knives?" he shot back.

Casting a brief glance back to the kitchen area of the home she had exited, Mariah muttered, "As luck would have it, not this time."

Major Spring threw a left-handed hook with his Stand—his own arm instinctively following the motion. "We see a punch from Major Spring," he announced before Mariah ducked under and slashed his outstretched arm. With a wince the athlete continued, "but Mariah plays a dirty trick with her blade once more! I'd praise the decision to bring a knife to a fistfight, but I don't think it'll end up helping her much in the end!"

"_Shut _up!" the fair-haired woman snapped as she leapt back and tossed two blades at her opponent.

"Oh, sounds like the dame is getting testy with this commentary! But, it's her own fault for picking a fight with the likes of Major Spring!" Ellelle expressed while using Mama SKYO to throw a punch into the ground after dashing forward, propelling himself in an arc over the weapons. "Mariah tosses a few knives again, but our Major has a plan to launch an attack from the skies!"

"I won't let a few piddly projectiles keep me down!" Major Spring laughed as he used the other arm of his Stand to punch Mariah while airborne. The cat-eyed dame easily dodged the punch that preceded the boxer's feet hitting the dirt. His considerable weight kicked up a sizable cloud of dust.

"Why announce your attacks like that when—?!" Mariah was cut off by a solid jab to the face she couldn't see coming from the haze. Her body flew back down the street her ally had used to pursue their target, but she swiftly righted her body and landed on her feet.

"A sneak attack might've been dirty, but that kind of impact is what the Major _lives _for!" Ellelle interrupted as he dashed toward his opponent.

Mariah glanced quickly down the alley. A ghost of a wicked grin passed her lips, but it was gone before the boxer could even recognize it. The flighty femme dashed into the passage. Major Spring attempted to catch up, but the previously thrown knives slicing through the air toward him caught his attention first. He caught the blades in his fist and threw them as hard as he could away from their fighting grounds. Thankfully, they didn't magnetize back to Ellelle at the speed they were thrown.

As he turned the corner to follow his opponent, he was assaulted by a pair of slashing knives from the woman. The boxer backed up to dodge an edge that swung too close to his throat for comfort. "How have I not made a comment about the cat having claws, yet?" Ellelle asked with a smirk. "It's practically Mariah's trademark!"

Mariah didn't comment on his question and instead posed a query of her own while swinging her knife toward his face: "What exactly did you say earlier? That you 'want to get your family back'?"

"Come on, now isn't the time to talk about the serious stuff!" The Major advised as he narrowly evaded her blade and threw a punch for her stomach. "Just focus on the fight!"

"Oh, I am!" Mariah corrected as she jumped back from his fist before his Stand shot out from his extended arm and sprang toward her at lightning speed. The attack missed the runaway's stomach by a hair, but her hip was grazed by the punch, which sent her spinning through the air to the ground. She leapt back to her feet without missing a beat. "That's the problem. What are you gonna get out of this fight?" Major Spring advanced and punched with his other arm, but Mariah nimbly dodged the jab and continued, "You'll get one step closer to Dio, and then what?"

"What happens next should be obvious if you heard that much!" the boxer dismissed as he jumped back from the dame's slice to his legs.

"You'll get your family back?" asked Mariah, advancing with a thrust of her knife and a fiendish smile on her lips. "What, you think Lord _Dio_ would just tell them to leave you behind?"

"What else would someone that dastardly do?" wondered Major Spring, dodging the woman's stab and jabbing her face. She flew back towards the raised building and landed before the boxer answered himself, "He's the kind of manipulative bastard who would do that!"

"_Language_, Major! The kiddies could be watching!" Ellelle commented before covering his mouth under a hand and rushing at Mariah.

"Oh, Ellelle, you _have _fallen far…" the enemy murmured before taking a more defensive pose. "You've completely deluded yourself. How could you ever think that someone like Dio would just _let _someone go?"

The boxer was silent. He shook his head before loosing a battle cry and throwing a right hook. She evaded the attack and sliced his arm open. Ellelle grunted but refused to respond.

"_That _shut you up. I must be on the right track," Mariah snickered as she sheathed her knives and focused on evading the punches of her opponent. "You know, I saw you a few times in those cells he keeps in the mansion, but I thought there was _something _off between how you acted when you were held captive and when Dio finally decided to enlist you. Something _happened_, Ellelle. Something _bad._"

"Nothing happened!" Ellelle argued as he threw barrage after barrage of punches at Mariah. Each attack of his seemed to be weighed down by some sort of invisible force. From his perspective, it was almost like he was watching an old boxing tape, but only he moved in slow-motion while Mariah moved normally.

"You'd be utterly, _impossibly _dumb to think I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I have no clue how in the hell you managed to figure it out before _I _saw what happened, but the 'how' doesn't matter right now," Mariah hissed. She sneered as she slowed alongside the boxer's attacks. "It's the 'what.' As soon as I saw those three bodies—those three women—I knew. As soon as I saw that little girl who looked suspiciously like you, I knew." The dame finally stopped evading, leaving herself perfectly open in front of her opponent. She flashed a Cheshire cat's grin as she spoke in a murmur that only served to deafen with the words she spoke: "You couldn't handle the deaths of the only people you cared about, could you?"

Time seemed to stop in that moment. The boxer couldn't stop the thoughts of "_She's wrong, she's wrong, she's wrong_"from cycling over and over in his mind, but with every denial he was supplied with a snippet of the past. A perpetuating dream. A word of comfort. A sight within the water that finally unraveled his mind. That sight…That _sight_…

"It's all okay if _Major Spring _is the one who went through all of that, isn't it?" a muffled voice taunted in his haze. "_You're _not the one who experienced the tragedy. _He _is. _He's _the one who saw his own family murdered. _He's _the one who kept going, despite this." A fiendish grin lowered to display laughter, _hideous _laughter at the revelation. "I'm not quite sure how you managed to convince yourself that your own family was only absent, but I guess that's just part of the show, isn't it? Trying to unravel this self-assured, self-aggrandizing, _broken_ man who shouldn't even muster the strength to _move_ makes for quite the entertaining _performance_."

_She's right_.

"_Shut up_!" Ellelle shouted as he put all of his weight into a Standless right hook.

Everything seemed to slowly start back up again. Mariah easily dodged the punch Ellelle threw. The attack had been in horrible form, which gave the woman the opportunity she wanted to reveal the axe she had procured from the alley—the same one Alessi had wielded before with the Romanized letters spelling the name of the weapon on the head. Ellelle couldn't react fast enough as Mariah swung the hatchet down.

The boxer only registered the witch's feline smile in his face before he was forced to look down at the knife she was jamming into his stomach. Something bright, something _red _caught his eye as his gaze drifted down. What his eyes were pulled to was what looked like a disembodied arm on the ground. It was covered in cuts from a sharp blade, and the knuckles were bruised, the palms calloused. Only as Ellelle realized he couldn't feel anything past his right elbow did he look up and realize that that arm had once belonged to him.

Ellelle howled in agony as the woman removed the blade and shoved him to the ground with her heel. Ellelle couldn't cast his thoughts to anything else, he couldn't process anything. Everything hurt. Everything _hurt_. He was only vaguely aware of Mariah raising the axe in the air with the smile of a sadistic monster.

"Any last words?" the witch asked.

Ellelle's eyes drifted shakily to her. He couldn't get a word past his lips. _Just…let…it…end…_ he thought as he closed his eyes. The fallen boxer only heard the slice of metal through the air.

But something interrupted that sound.

"Major!" a small voice cried.

Opening his eyes, Ellelle blearily saw a small, brunette girl…the same one from before, he slowly recalled. Tears streamed down her face as her mouth was covered by the boy who had accompanied her. He gazed at Ellelle with a hardened look beyond his years.

Even so, both children gazed toward the fallen boxer with the same plea alighting in their eyes: "Get up," they seemed to say.

Ellelle blinked. His hazy view was overcome with a different backdrop. The sands of Luxor under his cheek had drifted away in favor of the more forgiving canvas and padding of the ring. The countdown of a referee echoed in his ear, "One…Two…" Bruised and battered, his body refused to move.

"Oh? It looks like you were followed over here," the witch noticed.

Panic colored the girl's features while the boy tried to maneuver the both of them away from the voice of the fiend.

The two children were replaced by a brunette woman, a silver-haired old woman, and a small, black-haired girl with his eyes. The small girl was in tears, but she refused to look away from Ellelle. The younger woman's grip on the mat tightened while she bit her lip. The elder's hands were clasped in front of her, but she too kept her gaze on the eyes of the downed man. The countdown continued, "Three…Four…"

"You know, it might _actually _knock some sense back into you if I get rid of these twerps," Mariah realized as she weighed the axe in one hand while sauntering over to the raised building. She squatted down and eyed up the children underneath like fresh prey. The two kids squirmed backwards in the hopes of getting away, but the two jolted under an outlet the woman had placed behind them.

"Get up," their gazes begged, despite their fear. "Get up!" they cried, even when it seemed futile to shout. "_Get_ _up_!"

Feeling the coarseness of the sand under his hands, Ellelle tried to find his grip. "Five…" He instinctively attempted to prop himself up with his right arm, but he stumbled and fell onto his stomach. "Six…" His eyes were face-to-face with the arm that had been cut from his body. "Seven…" The man pushed himself up slowly, rising to a knee. "Eight…" His bones laced with fatigue, he willed his other leg to support himself as he stepped up. "Nine…" Ellelle finally stood completely. Despite the roars of the crowd, the fervent cheers of those dearest to him, he gave himself no time to celebrate as he turned his gaze to the witch currently halfway underneath the raised building.

Without a word, he summoned Mama SKYO and extended his left arm to grip the witch's leg. She let out a surprised yelp as she was swiftly yanked from her position. Mariah kicked at the arm that held her, to no avail. The grip on the arm loosened, however, allowing the villain to right herself in front of the standing boxer.

"Huh, I guess you were…" The words died in her throat as she beheld the man now standing between her and her would-be prey. Something about his posture told a different tale than that of the deluded fantasy of a man she had been battling before. His matted black locks fell in front of his face haphazardly, and the bleeding and crusted over cuts covering his body seemed to glow under the midmorning sun.

"Someone like you…" Ellelle spoke lowly as he slowly summoned his Stand to wisp ethereally about his left arm and the remains of his right. The heavy gloves of the arms hit the ground with the weight of two tons as the man finally fixed the woman with his unforgiving gaze. "Someone like you will _never _take someone's loved ones…_ Never _again."

The burning embers of his irises seared into the woman—freezing her to the spot. The raw, anguished beast she had forced to wallow in misery had freed himself of his shackles and stood before her with the presence of a warlord. For the first time she could remember, Mariah feared for her life.

It was that fear that allowed Ellelle to lunge forward at Mariah. His opponent, swallowing her fear, swung the axe at the man's head. He ducked and shoved his Stand's right fist into the woman's stomach so hard she vomited from the force. However, she continued to swing the axe towards his stomach, but the man grabbed the handle to prevent the weapon from bisecting him. Even so, the blade of the axe bit harshly into his side. With a pained growl, the boxer threw a left uppercut into Mariah's jaw. The blow sent the flighty witch rocketing into the sky. Removing the hatchet with a shout, Ellelle shot himself into the air with a punch to the ground. He passed the woman while airborne and readied his right fist.

"Any last words?" Ellelle asked as she reached his zenith of the flight. She couldn't seem to form words. The boxer smiled. "Then let justice be dealt to you, like it'll be dealt to your 'Lord' Dio."

With a mighty roar, Major Spring launched his right fist forward, slamming into Mariah's head and sending her body rocketing back to the ground. Ellelle followed soon after as he curled his Stand's right arm under him and shielded his landing.

Ellelle slowly rose to his feet as the dust cleared. From what Jotaro and Suki could see, the boxer was visibly swaying—his breath coming in small bursts as he tried desperately to steady it. Then, he dismissed his Stand and, ever so slowly, raised his left fist above his head in a posture of victory. The boxer tilted his head back and laughed at the sky. Suki smiled and wiped her tears away, while Jotaro smirked lightly.

"I did it! I did it…" Ellelle announced before dropping to his knees. "Thank…you…"

As suddenly as the boxer's victory had been cut short, Whit suddenly appeared next to the boxer's body.

"You performed quite well for yourself, Mr. Jay," he murmured as he lowered himself. As he shouldered the unconscious boxer, he said, "I do believe the hospital awaits to treat your condition."

_He's leaving, _Suki thought. She glanced back to Jotaro for a moment as she all too quickly recalled the events of the previous night that had slipped her mind in the ruckus. He met her eyes but she hadn't been expecting him to. Suki looked away for a moment of thought before calling out to the attendant. "Wait, Whit!" shouted Suki, surprised at the ease of which the attendant's name emerged from her memory as she tried to scoot toward him from under the building.

"Ah, Miss Kanao," Whit addressed. "Much as I would wish to inquire as to why you and Mr. Kujo are currently in less clothing than is standard for such a country, I believe that this man requires medical attention as soon as humanly possible at this moment in time."

The weary warrior had not thought to reexamine her appearance, but upon inspection, it appeared as if the effects of Alessi's Stand had worn off. As such, Suki was left in a tunic that barely extended to her hips and Jotaro in the remains of a similar article. Swallowing her embarrassment as swiftly as she could, she asked, "H-Have you had breakfast?" Jotaro gave her a confused look.

"You are most certainly aware of the idea that I do not require sustenance of such a stature, are you not?" Whit wondered. "Besides, as I am at this very moment quite _clearly _preoccupied—"

"Join us," Suki requested. "Later, I mean."

"Ah, now that you both have returned to your original states of being," Whit brushed off the question as he recalled, "I should not neglect to remember something of utmost import to you, Mr. Kujo." The eerie attendant produced a blue pill bottle from his pocket and tossed it low to Jotaro. The container bounced off the teenagers' low ceiling and landed perfectly in the thug's outstretched palm. A single tablet clinked against the walls of the bottle as Jotaro examined it. "The drug is as authentic as is possible for the genuine article. If you ingest the tablet within the cyan confines, your Stand shall return to you within a reasonable amount of duration. As they commonly phrase the statement, 'Forbearance is a behavior showcasing heightened moral standards.'"

"'Patience is a virtue'?" Suki deduced.

"So it is, Miss Kanao," Whit declared.

"Whit," Jotaro began, earning the attendant's attention, "thank you."

The strange attendant's breath seemed to catch in his throat before he coughed awkwardly and replied with, "Are you…not aware that this was a predicament of a creation by my own hands? For if I had decided not to procure the Stand inhibitor and cure for Stand inhibition, Miss Swift would have had no object to steal off of my personage and thus would she have been unable to fully restrain you." Jotaro huffed a sigh. Whit dismissed, "Now, if you would excuse me—"

"Wait, what about my question?" Suki asked.

The eerie attendant only replied with, "Perhaps." Then, as quickly as he appeared, he was gone, with no trace of him or the boxer who had fought so relentlessly for their lives.

No sooner had the two men disappeared did Suki begin to hear voices calling her and Jotaro's names. Relief washed over the weary warrior like a morning tide as she recognized the voices without any trouble. "We're over here!" Suki called back.

The sound of shoes scuffing the dirt accompanied the sight of two pairs of legs coming into view from the teenagers' contracted perspective under the building. They saw Joseph's barely wrinkled visage soon after as he bent down to find them. He raised an eyebrow. "Glad to see you two made it out alright, but your clothes…?" he trailed off.

"The clothes we had on before should be in the pit you found us in before, Mr. Joestar," Suki debriefed on a stressed huff.

The old man nodded. "We'll be back shortly," he assured before standing up straight and running off with Abdul close behind.

In the quiet left under the now-abandoned building, Suki found herself turning to the thug at her side. Her gaze softened as she watched him carefully analyze the container and turn it over slowly in his hands. "What do you think?" she asked.

"As if I wasn't already fucked enough," Jotaro started as he rested his chin in his palm, "now I've got 'drug consumption' to add to the list."

Suki tilted her head at the strength of the word he used. "Well, you didn't necessarily deny projecting onto me…but I think 'fucked' might be a bit of an overstatement." The delinquent quirked an eyebrow. Suki deadpanned in response, "You're talking to the girl who was in love with her brother for just under a decade, and I didn't deny your claims about me either. I don't exactly have room to criticize in terms of how 'fucked' you might be. By my standards, you're a model citizen."

Jotaro hummed lightly as the side of his mouth quirked up slightly.

Suki darted her eyes to the side before looking back to her partner. "Can I ask you a question?" she asked. The delinquent pulled his eyes away from the bottle and met her gaze. The softhearted knight swallowed before inquiring, "Can I ask, why do you call her a bitch?"

A brief memory of an obscenely warm room and a couch that threatened to drown him in its velvet embrace interrupted his train of thought. Unbidden, he recalled the same question spoken in that confident, masculine voice toward which he couldn't sort his sentiments. "No," Jotaro replied as he opened the container and tilted the opening toward his other palm. "Not now."

"Oh," Suki bit her lip after responding. "Sorry."

The thug looked back to his partner with an indiscernible expression. "Later," he promised.

Suki only nodded as Jotaro pinched the tablet between his thumb and forefinger and eyed its colorless, featureless shape. After a deep breath, he placed the pill on his tongue, closed his mouth, and swallowed. A few seconds passed before Suki asked, "Do you…feel any different?"

Jotaro shook his head. "Star Platinum…" he called. Nothing happened.

"Whit said something about everything returning to normal 'within a reasonable amount of duration,'" Suki remembered, "so we'll just have to wait a bit, it seems."

"But, I lost my Stand immediately on taking the first drug…" Jotaro observed.

Before Suki could offer a word of encouragement, the two heard Joseph's voice growing steadily closer, followed by Abdul's quieter responses. Soon enough, the gloved hand of Mr. Joestar, bearing the weight of Jotaro's and Suki's outfits and the weary warrior's satchel, lowered to face level for the teenagers. "Let us know if we missed anything," Abdul advised from further away.

"Thank you very much!" Suki enthused as she grabbed her bag, tank top, shorts, and underwear.

"You might want to move over to the alley right over here to get dressed," Joseph suggested as he pointed to his right. "Abdul and I can stand guard."

"Sounds good," the soft-eyed knight agreed as she and Jotaro followed the old man's advice.

While the two teens dressed, Suki and Joseph shared what had occurred on their ends, with several corrections of the old man's hyperbole from Abdul and one point of contention voiced by Jotaro—that being that the man known as Major Spring had been a previous servant of Dio.

"But, Whit showed up before either of us could talk to Ellelle again," Suki explained as she readjusted the star-patterned ribbon she had retied in her hair. "He might try a Hol Horse Compromise, but with him, after he's finished recovering."

"A…'Hol Horse Compromise'?" Abdul asked.

"I mean, Ellelle worked for Dio before, same as Hol Horse," Suki followed up as she twiddled her fingers. "I thought it'd be an easier point of comparison."

"Just say 'a compromise'," Jotaro remarked with a readjustment to his jacket.

"Well, gee, it seems so simple in hindsight, now doesn't it?" the weary warrior shot back.

"Who's Ellelle?" Joseph interjected with a raised eyebrow.

"Ellelle is the boxer," the delinquent enlightened.

"But I thought Major Spring was the boxer…?" the old man wondered.

"That's also true," Suki agreed.

"Major Spring and Ellelle…are _both _boxers?" Joseph asked.

"Ellelle _is _Major Spring, old man," Jotaro sighed as he tugged his hat down.

"Ohhhhhh!" the befuddled elder finally realized.

"So, this man goes by two different names?" Abdul pressed. "That could be…confusing."

"Eh…it's a little more confusing than that, actually…" Suki muttered.

"Well, Polnareff said he would meet us back this way," Abdul stated with a gesture to the street where they had come from. "Let's go find him."

"Thank God for the Speedwagon Foundation," Joseph sighed as he fell into step with his companion. "Paying for damages, researching the familial relations of the enemy Stand users, taking care of burials; I swear I ask them for too much."

"I am surprised by the speed at which they arrived to bury that Alessi fellow," Abdul noted. "I wonder if they had predicted such an outcome beforehand."

Suki and Jotaro began to follow a few steps behind the two men. As they turned the corner, they saw Polnareff, finally clothed, walking out of the tall, pastel-pink building near the end of the road. Polnareff was stopped by a fairly attractive Egyptian woman with lavender eyes and a pink polka-dot shawl. Abdul waved to the Frenchman as Joseph called out to him. Suddenly, Jotaro stopped. While Joseph and Abdul continued toward Polnareff, who looked hesitant to engage with any of the approaching parties, Suki halted and looked back to Jotaro with a curious expression. The delinquent narrowed his eyes as he stared at the ground.

Jotaro's body felt like it was falling asleep and sparking to life all at once. The man was drowning under the deepest waves while at the same time floating above the highest clouds—all the while he felt like he couldn't breathe. He visibly trembled as the unstable, feverish sensation coursed through his veins. Then, his body jolted forward. The soft-spoken thug clenched his teeth as he tried to steady himself through the constant waves of searing contradictory perceptions. The soft-eyed knight rushed over to him with concern bubbling up in her eyes. Jotaro's wide eyes met Suki's as he tried to catch his breath.

"Star…Platinum…" he breathed as the air rushed from his lungs. The sensation stopped dead in its tracks as Jotaro felt something emerge from his figure. Within a moment of regaining his bearings, the delinquent turned to face what had appeared. Suki's eyes widened as she too witnessed the familiar Stand floating in front of his user.

The violet spirit looked to his hands, then brought them to his face, as if he was in disbelief that he was really here. Star Platinum looked back to Jotaro with that disbelieving expression. Jotaro gave the warrior-like wraith a curious look before the Stand rushed forward and attacked him with a powerful hug.

The delinquent sighed as his arms fell to his sides. "Good grief, I forgot you're a sap," he muttered. Star Platinum appeared to ignore this comment as he refused to let go of his user.

Suki chuckled before summoning Knight of Cups. The hooded spirit seemed to panic at her call as the statuesque Stand turned his gaze to her. Star Platinum finally released Jotaro before drifting over to Knight. The watery wraith seemed nervous as the other spirit looked her up and down. Needless to say, she was caught off-guard when Star Platinum gave her the same treatment as he had to his user. Suki smiled upon feeling a mirror of the warmth as Knight of Cups returned the embrace. The softhearted knight was briefly startled and confused as she felt the phantom sensation of something soft but firm press against her cheek until she observed her own Stand wriggling out of Star Platinum's grip with her sleeves over her face and a red glow beginning to tint her figure. The violet spirit looked flustered as Suki laughed lightly while Jotaro groaned and yanked his hat down over his eyes.

"You know, if your Stand is anyone to go by," Suki began as she looked up to Jotaro with a soft smile, "I don't think you're as bad as you make yourself out to be."

The delinquent sighed, but the weary warrior didn't miss the slight tilt of his mouth before she turned around to call back her Stand. Jotaro allowed his own Stand to return to his figure just as Joseph called to them from further down the road. "What's the holdup?" the old man shouted as he strolled over to the teenagers, leaving Abdul to continue towards Polnareff.

"We've got great news, Mr. Joestar!" Suki enthused as she started jogging towards the elder. "Jotaro just—"

"Uh, e-excuse me!" a small voice called out in Arabic.

The two teenagers turned to see a small unibrowed girl with a white hat and an equally sized boy with black, spiky hair who wore a blue cap. The boy was hesitant to continue towards the older youths, but the girl boldly examined Suki and Jotaro. Her brow furrowed tightly as she met the softhearted warrior's eyes. The four-year-old girl opened her mouth to say something, but words failed her as all she uttered was a faint gasping noise.

Suki cast a requesting glance to Jotaro, who gave her a pointed look. The weary knight huffed a sigh before squatting in front of the girl. The hatted girl's grey eyes searched the brown eyes of Suki. It was evident that she wanted some sort of answer. So, Suki placed a hand on the girl's head and smiled.

"We heard about what you did for them. You, Sherine—" Suki smiled at Sherine. She then looked to the boy, "—and Hakim, and your friends…you all were so brave," Suki praised. Her eyes fell to the ground as she continued, "I'm sorry we couldn't help you all that much, but—" The kindhearted knight lifted her eyes to meet those of Sherine once again. "—we'll definitely find Mahmoud for you."

Sherine's eyes widened. This small kernel of hope long since buried with the emergence of Alessi finally sprouted, bringing tears to the four-year old's eyes. As she rubbed at her eyes with her hands, all she could utter was quiet, but far from weak: "Thank you."

With a parting smile, Suki stood and nodded to Jotaro. The thug nodded in reply, then gave a slight nod of acknowledgement to the children before turning and following the trail Suki left to their comrades.

* * *

"Yer gonna get a helluvan earful once you wake up," Hol Horse muttered as he finished bandaging the unconscious tailor's numerous cuts.

The hotel room he had returned to was quiet, save for Anne's soft snoring on the opposite bed near the bathroom. While Michel had created the ice packs for the purposes of cooling Anne's sudden fever, as soon as the cowboy had felt a noticeable bump on the wounded artist's head, he quickly prioritized the distribution of the ice to the swelling. Thankfully, it looked like Anne's fever had gone down, so he kept one on the youth's head while he placed the other on Michel's.

With a huff, the gunman wiped the sweat from his brow and sat on the side of Michel's bed. He tightened the sheets in his fists and groaned, "Don't help matters that it's so goddamn _hot _in here. Is the A/C busted or somethin'?"

Hol Horse felt a familiar sensation course through his veins as he felt something soft and firm—a hand—touch the back of his. Casting his eyes to the bedridden woman, that feeling was replaced as he saw Michel sit up. Her hand pressed over his to support herself as she held her head swathed in bandages with the other.

"What ya did was real stupid, ya know that?" he grumbled.

There was a pause before Michel responded. "I guess I have to thank you again, for saving me," she admitted.

Hol Horse turned toward her. He saw her eyes were narrowed and she had placed a hand on her throat as she now sat beside him on the side of the bed. Regardless, he scolded her, "Don't jus' thank me if yer gonna keep gettin' into trouble like this by yerself. And lay back, dammit, yer wounds ain't all healed yet."

"…What?"

"I said 'lay back.' Do ya understand me?" the cowboy asked. The quiet tailor stared at him confusedly.

"Why are you just mouthing—?" Michel looked down at the sheets, swallowed, and cleared her throat. "I was just…" she started in a level tone of voice. Her eyebrows rose as she looked to Hol Horse, who seemed to be expecting a continuation of her statement. "I was just—!" She shouted, causing Hol Horse to raise an eyebrow at the sudden change in volume. A small rasp came from the Michel's throat as her hands drifted to her ears. She pressed her index fingers into them, as if trying to pluck something out of them. Her expression grew panicked.

"'You were just…'what?" the confused gunman asked.

"No," Michel denied. She held her head in her hands as she trembled. "No no no no no this can't be happening this can_not _be happening…!" Her breath came faster as she shook her head. "I can't be…I can't be! I can't be!"

"Michelle, hey!" Hol Horse called over her voice.

Her feverish denials continued without pause even as he scooted closer to the woman. He grasped her arms and lowered her hands, which forced Michel to focus on Hol Horse. Her dark blue eyes seemed to frantically search his as she panted weakly, "I'm just hallucinating…I'm just hallucinating…"

Hol Horse blinked. His grip tightened on the tailor's wrists. Her response was a wince as she tried to pull her hands back. Hol Horse released her and met her gaze as she absentmindedly rubbed at her wrists. The gunman pantomimed his words as he enunciated slowly, "Can you hear me?"

Michel stared and stared at the man—seemingly willing herself to be able to hear him. She may have understood his question, but she never heard the words he spoke. Tears slid down her face. The quiet artist tried to hold back her sobs, but her voice came quaking from her throat as she realized her fear. She collapsed onto Hol Horse as she covered her face with her hands. The cowardly casanova was startled by the contact as the tailor continued to weep. A moment passed, before he finally placed a hand on her back. "There, there," he comforted awkwardly.

"I was stupid," she hissed, "_so _stupid! I'm such a goddamned _idiot_…!"

Hol Horse pondered for a moment. He glanced to Anne on the other bed then looked back down to Michel. He sighed and muttered, "Smart people do stupid shit all the time. Relax for once, would ya?" Michel looked up at the man quizzically as she wiped her tears. "Uhh, here," started Hol Horse, who stood carefully and walked to the bedside table. He opened up the drawer and pulled out a notepad and pen and scribbled something down. The gunman then ripped the paper from the pad and handed it to Michel.

She stared at the looping, curving jumble of letters for a few moments before sighing, "I can't read this."

"What do ya mean, 'I can't read this'?" Hol Horse parroted as he gestured to the letters. "It's in English!" Realizing his mistake, he jotted something down in all caps on the next sheet and handed it to her.

"E…N…" the deaf tailor read aloud. She tilted her head. "Eng…lish?"

"Shit, did that knock to the head shake yer memories, too…?" the gunman shook his head before trying one last time. The message he wrote on this slip contained bold, neatly spaced letters that were easy to read.

"'I wrote those last two messages in cursive; this one is in print. I was originally telling you not to worry. It'll be okay'…" Michel narrowed her eyes as she read the message aloud before looking up at the man. "English has a cursive script, too?"

Hol Horse scratched a new message onto a new sheet as he muttered, "'You've _gotta_ learn _cursive_.' 'You'll use it _everywhere_'…Psh." He handed Michel the newest message, which read, "Don't worry about it."

"I feel like it's worth worrying about," the tailor surmised. "It's barely readable."

The cowboy tossed his arms in the air. "That's what _I _said! But that ol' spinster of a teach' said, '_No_, Hol Horse, you need to be an _intellectual _to get anything done in this world,'" he mimicked his presumed teacher. The skeptical cowboy folded his arms. "I get the 'intellectual' part sure 'nuff, but you'd be stupid to think knowin' cursive was the fulcrum of that."

The only reaction he got from the tailor to his overdramatic retelling was an acknowledging fragment of a smile before it was gone in the next second. Michel finally laid back and stared at the ceiling. Her expression tightened as she just tried to breathe normally. Hol Horse scratched the back of his neck and looked around the room. As his eyes fell on Anne once again, he wrote another message on the paper: "Why don't we run by the doctor after the girl's woken up, see if they can't help you out?"

Some light returned to the despondent tailor's eyes as she sat up and looked to the other occupied bed. "How is she doing?" Michel asked. She rose shakily and stumbled toward the other bed, but Hol Horse caught her.

"Easy, easy," he coaxed as he guided her to sit back down. "Yer wounds'll open up again."

With a reluctant nod, the caring artist acquiesced. She stared concernedly at Anne while the cowboy scribbled out another note: "Her fever's gone down, so hopefully she'll wake up soon."

"Hopefully…" Michel repeated as she gazed at the sleeping youth. The wounded tailor stood carefully—feeling a bit anxious at Hol Horse's unyielding gaze— and stepped toward the sleeping runaway girl. She brushed the ice pack to the side as she laid a hand on the child's forehead. _She must be in a deep sleep after fighting that fever._ _Is she dreaming?_

* * *

The screeches of the caged birds of Yuen Po pounded the girl's eardrums as she curled into a ball on the dirty sidewalk. Her cheek ached and she felt herself bleeding through her simple black dress onto the ground. The crisp white and red minimalist designs on the wall and the meticulously designed bird cages hanging from several structures along the building simmered in the overwhelming summer heat.

Her sister stood in front of her with a small pocketknife brandished at their two ragged attackers. "Leave my sis alone, you cowards!" the energetic girl—her twin—shouted as she posed menacingly with the blade. "This demon blade has yet to take the blood of its 100th victim! So, which one of you wants to step up first?"

"Yer shufflin' around like you've got no idea that yer existence is a crime," one of the impoverished men slurred. "Hain't you heard of the 'one-child policy'?"

The girl on the ground was sick of hearing those words. She hated them. Her sister did too, judging from the growl that rumbled from her throat.

"Twins like you shouldn't be here!" his shorter, hairier ally compounded.

"Well, what's one more person?" the active girl retorted as she tossed the knife from hand to hand.

"We might be willin' to accept it if it was jus' one more," the taller, red-faced man argued, "but a family of fifteen or so of you gals runnin' amok in this city is a nightmare! Not jus' for yer parents, but fer those of us that _need _that food yer scarfin' down on the daily!"

"Wait, hang on," the hairy man called as his taller companion stepped forward. He continued in a murmur, "Wasn't one of our guys at the docks…_looking _for someone? And he said he'd pay us if we brought 'em in…"

The red-faced man raised an eyebrow before turning back to the girls. "Oh, _yeah_, he said he needed another person, didn't he?" he wondered aloud with a smirk. "A 'willing donor,' he said?"

The girl with the knife didn't seem to hear their whispers, but the girl on the ground stiffened. "R…un…" she rasped. "Please…run…Sis…!"

The aggressive girl looked toward her sister with a confused look. "What? These idiots are a piece of cake! Why would I run and leave you behind?" she inquired.

The smaller man nodded to his companion. "Grab her," he commanded.

The taller man reached for the bleeding sister before the knife-wielding one whipped around and jumped in the way. "Over my dead body!" she shouted as she slashed at the man's arm.

"'Dead'? You'll die on our terms, tyke," the red-faced man chuckled as he easily dodged the girl's swipe and grabbed her other arm. The girl on the ground tried to push herself up while the other sister leaned into the man's grip and bit down hard on his hand. He released her with a yowl of pain and she thrust the knife again, but he kicked the blade from her grip and socked her in the jaw. The aggressive girl fell to the ground, unconscious, next to the passive one.

"Someone, call the police!" a man yelled from further away.

The taller man reached down and hoisted the aggressive girl over his shoulder. With his other hand, he removed a gun from the back of his pants. He fired a warning shot and then aimed toward the citizens in the park. "Call the cops and I shoot someone," he bargained. The citizen who had called out stayed silent. "Let's go," he coaxed back to his partner. The two turned and began walking down the street.

The remaining sister tried in vain to push herself up, but her strength was gone—she was watching it get carried away as the screams of the birds warped and distorted in her ears. As everything, the birds, the cages, the buildings, their aggressors, the people gawking at the scene, seemed to melt in this oven of a city.

_No…please…Please…Someone…help, please…!_

Suddenly, one of the men at the far end of the street collapsed. Squinting, the girl saw a familiar face had intercepted the escape of the two men. As the red-faced man panicked, the familiar man struck his opponent on the back of the neck, knocking him out instantly.

Her rescuer's black, short, curly locks had been tamed and didn't fall in his smooth face as he reached down to carry the unconscious girl in his arms. The sun glinted off his horn-rimmed glasses, but the light didn't seem to reach his stormy eyes as he walked over to the other struggling sister.

The man extended a hand to the bruised child. The light that bounced off his watch cast him in an ethereal glow that almost blinded the girl. "Let's go home." his deep baritone reassured her as it seemed to take precedence in her ears over the disturbed canaries and parrots nearby.

Tears welled up in the girl's eyes as she sobbed, "Uncle Frank—!" She tried to raise herself but collapsed forward. Frank caught her with his other arm as she grasped blindly at his spotless white suit pants, the fabric crinkling in her small hands. "Th-They beat me up, and then they…they almost took…!" she hiccupped.

"It's alright, it's alright," Frank comforted as he stroked her hair. "It'll be alright," he promised while holding his hand out for the girl once more. She placed her hand in his. The girl was perpetually surprised by how gentle his grip was as he led her along while whistling a tune she recognized from a musical her mother had always loved to watch. The tune almost let her lose herself, finally allowed her to ignore the disdainful looks and comments from people they passed in the street.

Her vision muddied and distorted until she couldn't see anything in front of her. When she was able to view her surroundings again, she was in a small room with two beds, a neatly kept bookshelf, and toys strewn about the floor.

"C'mon," the energetic sister goaded sleepily from her desk. Her previous injuries had been treated and bandaged. "Don't you wanna know what they were talking about?" she asked as she rested her head on her Geography homework.

"M-Maybe, but won't we get in trouble if we leave the room? It's bedtime for us…" the quiet girl rebutted from over the spine of a well-worn Physics textbook.

"Bedtime, shmedtime. We're not too far away from being the ones to stay up late out there like all the adults!"

"W-We're ten, sis…" she stammered as she attempted to bury herself in the familiar concepts of her preferred study.

"And we won't get in trouble if you do your magic!"

The timid girl froze. With a breath, she carefully shut the book and looked up to her sister, who eyed her expectantly.

The shy child darted her eyes around the room before she pressed, "You…_really _want me to…eavesdrop?"

Her sister fell silent for a moment. Then, in an uncharacteristic tone, she murmured, "From what you saw when Uncle Frank brought us back, I feel like they're gonna talk about us at the table tonight." Her usual grin flashed across her face again. "I always wanna know what people are saying about me! Don't you?"

The timid girl took a deep breath. "Fine," she acquiesced. "But I'm not using my magic."

Her sister rolled her eyes before turning back to her work. "Just don't get caught, then," she muttered.

The passive girl breathed a sigh before she slowly opened the door and inched out into the hallway.

The girl kept her steps light as she traipsed through the darkened marble hallways and tiptoed past room after room as most of the members of her family seemed to prepare for sleep. She passed all manner of depictions of their gods—their imposing and majestic features imprinted eternally in stone under their cloaks of red paper. The mirrors that normally reflected the opulence of the house were nowhere in sight.

It wasn't until she passed a dim room lit only by candles on the first floor that she stopped. The shadows of the white irises dancing in the candlelight briefly flickered over the couplet her aunt had written in Chinese calligraphy: "May courage be in every step, may song live on in the heart." Said aunt was the only other person in the room, who kept a resolute vigil of the display dedicated to a framed photo of a woman with curly black hair, warm brown eyes, and a smile as bright at the sun. The little girl didn't realize she was weeping until she blinked and felt water slide down her cheek and soak into her bandage. She continued forward without another glance in the direction of the display.

Before long, she began to hear voices coming from the living area. The girl crept closer and sidled up next to the wall. She peeked into the room and saw Frank sitting on the edge of the stark white couch next to the armchair in which her grandfather, Jin, sat. The old man's wispy white eyebrows were raised as Frank spoke quietly, but not weakly. Two steaming coffee mugs sat between the two men as they discussed.

"It might not be my place to pry, but I just feel like something should be done," Uncle Frank asserted. "Their father clearly doesn't care enough to walk them home from school or stay with them when they play outside. Even if I come along and walk the two girls home, they're endlessly harassed by people who think they're a waste of space!"

"The father is…an issue all his own. As to the latter," the elder sighed as he adjusted his white robes. "they may have been born a few years before the enaction of the one-child policy, but people can't seem to tell. The population's too dense to allow for any sort of exception," he explained. Frank ran a hand through his hair. The old man adjusted his glasses as he postulated, "Although, they might be more open to making remarks when a 'smelly foreigner' is carting two tykes around."

Uncle Frank groaned, "Isn't half a decade here enough?"

The grandfather gave a weak half-smile before responding, "With what you've done for me, more than enough. For people who you see once and never again, absolutely not."

Frank sighed and sank back into the cushions of the sofa. "All I did was delay the inevitable, Mr. Qián," he mourned.

"You gave my Yue more time to live happily and be a mother to her children. That is something no other doctor was capable of, Frank," the old man stated matter-of-factly.

"Yue," repeated the doctor, his breath catching. "If I had _just_—"

"You agreed to stop shouldering the blame for this, Frank. She couldn't be cured through anything short of a miracle."

"But I thought _I _could pull that miracle off!" Frank argued as he sat back up. "I thought I _had_… But then it came back…and I couldn't deal with it."

The elder closed his eyes as he took a deep breath. Then he stated, "What's past is past. I know you did everything you could." The surgeon nodded.

A few moments of quiet passed, save for the call of the katydids outside.

"I want to adopt them." Frank's statement brought a disbelieving expression to the grandfather's face. "I've thought about it, and, with what I've raised, I could retire now if I wanted to, with enough to potentially support one or two kids."

"I see how that would correct the problem of their remaining parent, but I don't see how moving across the street would alleviate the discrimination they face," Jin responded with folded arms.

"I've been planning to move out of Hong Kong."

"Back to America?"

"To Cairo, actually. In Egypt," Frank corrected.

The grandfather blathered, "As a _surgeon_?" The doctor shook his head. "I can't think of any other reason you'd live there above any other, cleaner location…"

"It's the capital of coffee. In my visits there, I can see why it's earned the title," the doctor shared. He half-smiled. "I've always wanted to own a coffeeshop. It just seems like the most natural place to own one, don't you think?"

Jin paused. Then he huffed a small laugh. "You never _have _liked the coffee here. Always saying something under your breath about how it's 'cheap swill.'"

"Not to mention needlessly expensive," Frank added. "If I just had the right ingredients, I could actually make a decent cup."

"I don't doubt it. You're already capable of quite a bit," the old man assured. After a few moments, he took a deep breath. "Hesitant as I am to send the girls off to some place where they would be exposed to a horrible educational system, they can't exactly succeed if they succumb to their injuries. The nights you _haven't _escorted them have been some of the worst for me." Qián sighed, "If you aren't around, they come to me or their aunt to fix them up. Now, why do you think that is?"

Frank's eyebrows rose before a grimace contorted his features. "You might be right about the father being an 'issue all his own,'" he grumbled.

"Never visiting Yue, and now this…" the grandfather muttered. "I've thought about some things as well, Frank. Needless to say, Bim will have some explaining to do."

The moving picture the girl viewed flowed past faster. She vaguely recollected a service—a gift of white envelopes and a distribution of red ones, a coffin occupied by the woman from the photo, a chorus of mournful cries, a burning smell: the burning of paper, of clothes, of her taped musicals, of an entire television. She recalled a stuffy courtroom with the sounds of angry, deep voices and the stench of sweat and paper. In that court, she heard Frank arguing the most, accompanied by her grandfather, but the Egyptian man in a red suit with short black hair—he argued the loudest.

Everything bled together until the girl recognized she was sitting in a soft, foam seat. The soft-spoken girl watched several important-looking people in uniforms on the ground running here and there from her seat next to the window. Her ears caught the revving of the engine and the din of the travelers moving into their seats before she felt a familiar hand graze her stomach and tug on the seat belt between the wall and the chair.

Looking down at the arm that reached across her, the girl saw her sister grin at her. "Aren't you always the one stressing about safety?" the energetic girl asked. "You must really be nervous."

The quiet girl simply huffed and scanned the mass of people spreading across the vehicle. She involuntarily pulled her legs and arms in as her hands rose to cover her ears. The timid sister curled in close to the other girl as she closed her eyes.

It wasn't until she felt a tap on her shoulder that the soft-spoken girl looked up to her sister, who pointed to Frank. The doctor rested his hand in the luggage compartment as he gave the introvert a concerned look. "Are you still sure you're okay with this?" he wondered.

A second passed before the quiet sister gave a shaky nod.

"Come on, Sis!" her aggressive sibling coaxed as she mindlessly kicked the seat in front of her. "It's like a brand new adventure! Far from the smog and eggs-peg-tay-shuns of Hong Kong and to a new, fun place!"

"Don't think you won't need to keep up with your studies, kiddo," rebuked Frank, collapsing in the end seat with a sigh.

"Awww, but Dr. Fraaaaank," the expressive girl whined, "school's too haaaaaard!"

"Well, homeschooling won't keep you up into the wee hours of the morning," the surgeon promised with a smirk, "as long as you're responsible about it."

"Fiiiiiiiine," the aggressive twin sighed.

"Speaking of being sure of things," Frank segued as he gave the two girls a serious look, "you're sure you don't want new names?"

"Yeah, we're sure," the boisterous girl affirmed in surprising sobriety as her sister nodded solemnly. "It's…all we have left of…"

A tense silence filled the crowded space between the three of them. Frank began, "I'm—"

"Don't apologize," ordered the confident sister, returning to her usual bubbliness. She winked as she offered, "You can make it up by going easy on the schoolwork!"

"Anne, your timing is off," the studious girl muttered with a pout.

Anne looked to her sister and mirrored her expression. "It was just a joke, Margret," she muttered.

"Didn't sound like one…" Margret retorted under her breath.

The soft-spoken twin's attention was caught by the stewardess, who began detailing safety procedures for the flight. Her sister laid back in her chair and pretended to doze off. Margret nudged her twin until she "awoke" and began listening, but not before throwing a dirty look her sister's way. Frank looked lost in thought as the lecture went on, as if he didn't need to hear this set of instructions for the twentieth time. Once the employee caked in makeup bade everyone to have a good flight and stepped away from the middle of the aisle, Margret cast her eyes out the window to the employees carting away the portable staircase to the vehicle's door.

"Last chance," Frank reminded with a sympathetic gaze. "You still want to come with, Margret?"

The quiet girl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes after a moment and turned to look at her sister for a long moment. Anne eyed her questioningly before Margret lifted her gaze to her adopted father. "I want to. I'm sure of it," she affirmed.

Frank gave the girl a half smile and patted her head before buckling his seatbelt and scanning the rest of the plane. Then, the plane began to move as the engine grew louder. Margret gazed once more to the window as the ground began to move under the wheels of the aircraft.

"Say 'Bye, Hong Kong!'" Anne cheered as she waved out the window.

As the plane picked up speed and finally lifted off the tarmac, Margret murmured, "Goodbye…Hong Kong…"

The image the girl viewed bled away from her sight. A new area full of warm browns and reds filled her vision like she had been blinking away sleep. Snippets of dialogue reached her ears, mostly from Frank about how the place "is a fixer-upper, but it feels like home" and how he hoped the strays they'd seen wandering about "wouldn't bust in and eat the beans." The scent of dust tickled her nose, and the feeling of grime between her fingers grazed her skin as she recalled helping clean what would be Café Sinatra. A memory flitted by of hearing Anne's laugh at Frank's choice of replacement for his white, funereal suit: a red flannel shirt and black slacks with the same stark white shoes. It was a "better-fitting ensemble for a coffeehouse owner," he had argued.

For a while, she remembered, the café felt more like home than an actual house. Even on days when Frank would assist at the local hospital—leaving the café closed—she recalled curling up on the bed and hiding swathed in the thick blanket for several hours with a flashlight in one hand and a book in the other, all while listening to the voices of Frank and Anne mingling with those of so many people she didn't know or the peaceful silence left behind. Her thoughts would rarely, briefly flutter to joining her family downstairs during store hours, but every time she would recall the hurtful things said in regard to her, in regard to her power, and slink further back under the covers.

It didn't take too long for her to hear footsteps up the creaky wooden stairs. Even if she knew who the sounds belonged to, her heart pounded faster on instinct. From across the room, she heard a gentle call of, "Margret?" With a shaky breath, the girl slowly lowered the covers and kept her gaze glued to her fidgeting hands. Those footsteps approached again until Frank's lower torso came into view, before he crouched down to look her in the eye. "You okay up here?" he asked.

Margret darted her eyes up before returning them to her hands. She nodded quickly.

"I don't expect you to call me 'Dad' right away," the former surgeon offered as he rose and sat on the bed next to the girl, "but you know you can talk to me about anything that's bothering you, right?"

The child tried to pull the covers over her head, but the café owner's weight on part of the blanket served to throw a wrench in that plan. "There's nothing wrong," she murmured.

Frank sighed and scratched at the beginnings of stubble on his chin. "Would leaving you alone make you happier?" he wondered.

"It's better than the alternative…" she muttered.

"What's the alternative?" Frank asked.

The girl froze, apparently shocked that he had heard her. She nervously cast her eyes around the room before mumbling, "I…can't tell you."

"How come?"

"You wouldn't believe me," Margret replied quietly as she stared at her bobby socked feet.

The coffeehouse owner hummed in thought before shooting back, "Try me."

The girl turned her eyes to her adoptive father. After a moment of staring into his stormcloud-grey eyes, she came to the conclusion that, even if he didn't believe her, her age could be used as an excuse for mild schizophrenia, and she would never bring up the issue again.

"I-I have this power…it feels like magic, but, at the same time, it doesn't," the sensitive child began.

Frank raised his eyebrows. "What can you do with this power?" he inquired.

"I can make copies of myself…and I can change my appearance. However—" Her gaze dropped to the floor. "—ever since I lost control of it in a freak accident, I've never trusted myself to use it correctly." Margret shook her head and looked to Frank with a guilty expression. "You probably just think I'm…" the girl trailed off as she observed her adoptive father.

Frank was staring at the girl with an intense expression. "This power…can you show it to me?" Margret cringed. The former doctor's steely gaze immediately softened. "You don't have to use it, I just want to see if you can—" He appeared to be trying to think of the best way to explain his request. "—bring out what gives you this power."

The shy child bit her lip as she turned to look at the floor. After a long, ponderous moment, she took a deep breath. With no small amount of hesitation and an absurd level of concentration, she exhaled, "Bachelor's…Paradise…"

The kneeling figure that emerged in front of Margret on the wooden floorboards was about her size. Wide black eyes opened to meet the brown irises of its summoner. A long-nailed finger came up and traced an upward-facing curve in the space where the spirit's mouth would be on its pale visage. A shimmering head of white hair filled with decorative pins and jewelry cascaded down the back of Bachelor's Paradise as it stood from its kneel. Its long, flowing red robes shifted with the motion. The brightness of the clothing burned the girl's eyes in the split second she viewed her ghostly companion before four copies of the quiet girl phased into existence in front of her.

"Ah, no, no, no!" Margret squeaked in panic as she leapt from the bed. She waved her arms through the figures as if she were shooing away flies. Despite her efforts and her own will, more clones just kept appearing and filling the room. "P-Please, just stop! Come back, come back to me!"

"Margret, control yourself!"

Frank's raised voice caused the timid child to flinch. She slowly turned back to him with her eyes wavering. As if obeying her adoptive father, the copies phased back into Bachelor's Paradise. The spirit smiled with her eyes at the surgeon, who simply stared straight into the abyssal irises of the elegant wraith. Margret's eyes widened.

"So, this," Frank gestured to the ghostly figure, "is your 'power'?"

"You—You can _see _it?" the child asked. "Not even Anne can see it…"

"Not everyone can see Stands, Margret," the coffeehouse owner explained as he patted the empty spot next to him.

Margret accepted the invitation and climbed onto the bed as she repeated, "Stands…"

"A Stand is like—" Frank scratched his chin. "—well, I guess you had the right idea with the 'magic' or 'power' thing. Not everyone is born with one, but those that are, like you and me, can see the Stands of other people."

"Wait, you have one, too?" the girl inquired. He nodded. "Can I…Can I see it?"

The adoptive father sighed and ran his fingers through his less-neat black hair. "I would show you, but it's microscopic."

Margret tilted her head skeptically. "Do you think it's strong enough that I would feel if it poked my finger?"

Frank appeared to consider this for a moment. In the next, the girl felt something sharp stick her right index finger like a needle. "Ow!" she yelped. Her guardian's expression was one of shock as she turned her hand over and looked at the tip of her finger. Where she had felt the pinprick, however, the girl saw nothing.

Frank's expression didn't completely soften as he apologized, "Sorry, I didn't mean for that to hurt that much."

The girl shook her head. "It didn't really hurt," she confessed. "It just surprised me." She closed her hand and looked back up to her guardian with a fascinated face. "H-How do you keep it under control?"

"From what I've been told, Stands are born from a person's strength of will. My Stand has just always done what I wanted. I always just thought of it as some sort of sixth sense, something that guided my hands to do what needed to be done." The unemployed doctor sighed, "But, not anymore."

A tense beat of silence passed before Margret admitted, "You seem to have more control over my Stand than me."

"It doesn't have to be that way, though," Frank enlightened as he placed a hand on the girl's shoulder. She seemed startled by the contact but didn't flinch away from it. The coffeehouse owner looked the girl dead in the eye and suggested, "I can teach you. I'll teach you everything I know."

Margret's face lit up in a way her adoptive father had never seen before. "Really?" she asked.

"Of course," stated Frank, squeezing her shoulder comfortingly.

The reserved girl cast her eyes away as she muttered pointblank, "This training…even if I get better, I can't guarantee that I'll go out as much as my sister."

"How come?" her adoptive father asked warmly.

"Because—" The child shrank slightly. "I just don't like other people much…"

"Hah! You and me both, kiddo!" Frank chuckled. "It's okay if you don't want to go out as much as Anne. As long as you're healthy and happy, you can stay in as much as you want." His eyes narrowed. "Just make sure you still get your homework done, alright?"

Margret pouted. "I always do my work. _Anne's _the one you should be worried about," the girl muttered. She tilted her head. "Speaking of, where _is _Anne?"

"She's downstairs with the part-timer—he's an old friend. Wanna meet him?" he asked.

The girl thought for several moments before nodding hesitantly. Frank then gently grasped her hand and walked down the stairs with her.

A view of sharp green eyes and a smile that was simultaneously unnerving and comforting was all she saw before being dunked back into the foggy creek of memories. Recollections came and went faster than she could even react: listening to Anne complain about homework, hearing her sister gush about the gods in the Greek mythology books they would both find interest in or the newest issue of _Ruffians Quarterly _that only Anne would seem to find interest in, practicing day after day with Frank, finally beginning to internalize some of his praise…content family dinners between the three of them, trying coffee for the first time, gradually moving out from under the covers and down to the coffeeshop proper, swiftly hiding in the most convenient spot as a stranger or two waltzed in.

Soon enough, two years had flown by, with only a few visits to more public places alongside her sister, and much more skill with handling her Stand. The manifestation of her will bent to her requests completely; she could make as many as ten copies of herself with no mental strain, and she could even create disguises beyond just who she had seen, as long as she received a detailed description. She never forgot that every discovery of hers about her own power was only possible with the help of her father.

New memories stuck out to her that seemed to be more current. She remembered more strange-looking people walk in, not for coffee, but to speak with Frank or a regular customer called "Lyn" about something important. She recalled meeting several new people: one was an encounter with a strangely accessorized woman with smoldering red hair, another a meeting with Frank's newest part-timer who was incredibly lazy compared to the last, yet another was a shy greeting to an imposing, eloquent blond man who didn't have the decency to wear a shirt.

She recalled facing adversaries—servants of "Dio"—alongside these people. With her sister and father by her side, Margret had no trouble assisting with a counterattack. Before that hiccup, everything had seemed to be going decently. The group's plan to overthrow Dio would be put into effect soon. Overhearing a private phone conversation, she learned Frank would close up shop and move the café business out of Cairo—possibly even out of Egypt—with the motivation to "keep his girls from having to constantly look over their shoulders in fear." Even with that big upset, it would all work out, she had thought, until…

A pit of dread opened up in her stomach as she anticipated what would come next. No matter how she worded her denials, the events came into her sight and refused to disperse.

That night, after their friends had quietly celebrated their victory and split off for the evening, the café was quiet. The broken floorboard and window left by the user of High Priestess (or so Brent claimed) still had yet to be fixed. Frank sighed as he examined the wreckage from the stove, where he was warming a pot of milk. "If Brando can't fix that, I'll have to call a damn repairman," he muttered.

"Language…" Margret scolded sleepily from her barstool.

"Every time I turn around, it's 'Brando this,' 'Brando that.' If you like him so much, why don'tcha marry him?" her bandaged sister joked from her seat beside the timid girl.

The café owner shrugged, then winced. "He does his work well. Unlike any other part-timer I've had," he stated as he rubbed his upper torso.

"I'm still just surprised that Brando actually _impresses _you! That's like a gold-standard achievement!" the boisterous girl snickered.

"Hey, it's not _that _difficult to impress me," Frank defended as he turned the stove off and poured the warm beverage into two mugs, one that looked like a stylized narwhal and a black one with a white floppy-eared bunny on the side. "After all, you two impressed me today."

The twins exchanged a look. "We did?" they asked in unison.

Frank nodded. After turning with the full mugs in hand, he looked to Anne as he began, "That guy messed you up pretty bad. You sure you're okay?"

"Heh, I've had worse," the battered child assured as she poked at her bruised stomach.

The adoptive father gave the girl a humorless look. "That's not something you should tell your guardian," he deadpanned as he slid the narwhal mug across the counter to Anne. The reckless girl stuck her tongue out at Frank as she caught the cup. Her adoptive father returned the gesture, causing Anne to giggle. Then, the coffeehouse owner turned to Margret. "I know you didn't get hurt, but you seemed pretty nervous the whole time. Are _you_ okay?"

The quiet sister nodded. "I was…kinda afraid of messing up Anne's plan," she admitted.

Frank gave a small, sympathetic smile. "I understand, Marge. But, you pulled it off, and we won. You were very brave, sweetheart," he praised as he carefully placed the rabbit mug on the surface in front of Margret. She smiled softly. Frank looked between the two girls. "You both were. After this is over, we won't have to deal with this kind of dangerous stuff ever again."

"Come on, Uncle Frank, you scared of a little adventure?" a newly mustachioed Anne goaded after sipping from her cup.

"I'm—" With a sigh, Frank removed his glasses and looked at his two daughters. He appeared to give what he was going to say some thought, before ultimately deciding against saying anything and replacing his spectacles. "—Never mind," he dismissed.

The two girls exchanged a concerned look. Then, Anne spoke up, "Uncle Frank, if you don't want—"

The door to the café creaked open, just enough that the bell overhead didn't chime. A quiet, chilly breeze swept through the room just before an arm squeezed through the space and tossed in what looked like a grenade with some sort of gas spewing out.

"Shit!" Frank exclaimed. He practically threw two dishrags at his daughters as he ordered, "Cover your mouths and noses and get upstairs!"

Anne and Margret did as told and scrambled up the stairs. The coffeehouse owner shoved the pistol he kept under the counter into his apron pocket and leapt over the countertop with a cloth covering his face.

As the former surgeon reached the landing, he saw the girls had already backed away onto the bed and were opening the window. "Come on, Uncle Frank, there's a dumpster right underneath this window!" Anne's muffled voice explained.

"You've watched too many action flicks," Frank dismissed. "There could be broken glass or nails in there, for all you know. We might be able to survivea fall like that, but we'd be in no condition to keep running."

"Do _you_ have a better plan?" Anne asked tersely.

"Of course I do," the adoptive father assured as he produced the pistol. "Margret, make as many clones as you can. I'll shoot him, and if I don't kill him, there'll be too many of you for him to parse through."

"But, that means leaving you behind!" the aggressive girl retorted.

"Do _you _have a better plan?" Frank returned in the same cadence as before.

Anne growled before folding her arms. "Fine, but we're _gonna _come back for you with help," she ensured as her sister nodded.

Frank nodded back and turned to the landing while Margret formed copies that flooded off the bed onto the floor next to their guardian. Soon enough, they heard footsteps, creaking ominously with every stair. The person that reached the top of the stairs looked to be a man in a black body suit—likely to hide any incriminating recognizable features. Black leather gloves hugged the hands that reached up to adjust his frightening possum mask.

"I'm giving you one warning:" threatened Frank, aiming the pistol, "get out of my shop, now, or this gets messy."

The stranger tilted his head questioningly before stepping forward. The café owner fired the pistol. The masked figure was only briefly staggered by the attack. He dashed forward as Anne, Margret, and her doubles scurried away from the bed and to the stairs past the dark-suited individual. The intruder didn't seem to even take notice of the girls rushing out of the room as he continued toward Frank at a breakneck pace. His progress was delayed temporarily once again as the adoptive father shot another bullet into the unknown person. The two girls heard their guardian groan loudly in pain as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

Anne dropped her cloth and cried in panic, "Uncle Frank!" Margret shoved the rag back into her sister's face and yanked her toward the door. "But, Uncle Frank could be—!" The frenzied girl faltered and stumbled. Her words grew slurred as the small dose of sleeping agent swiftly worked its way into her system. "C-Could…be…" she trailed off.

Anne dropped to her knees and fell on her face. Margret was nearly pulled down with her sister as her anxiety began to consume her. "N-No, come on, Sis…!" Margret urged as she pulled at her twin's arm. She knew she had no hope to even prop her sister up without using both arms, and that attacker could be down at any moment. Margret trusted Frank to be able to hold out for as long as they needed to get help, but she knew she could do _nothing _if Anne wasn't there with her.

The timid girl began breathing through her mouth and inserted the rag between her teeth. Her hissing breaths seemed to synchronize with the hissing of the gas bomb as she pulled Anne to her feet and began to stagger toward the door. _Come on…come _on_…Almost…there…_ Margret's legs began to shake with each step forward. Every bone in her body felt like deadweight as she desperately stumbled toward the door. Just as she reached for the doorknob, she collapsed against the wooden surface with Anne embraced close.

As Margret's vision began to blur, she saw the man in the black suit approach her with two burlap sacks. He dropped the tied, full-looking bag onto the floor as he approached with the open, empty one. _No…No, stay…away…! _

The only thing Margret heard as darkness enveloped her was a strange noise that her suddenly sluggish mind couldn't comprehend.

…

…

…

When Margret awoke, her face was pressed against a cold, cobblestone floor. The timid girl slowly shook the sleep from her head and observed her surroundings. Vertical iron bars were a clear obstacle between her and the bleak hallway just past them, with a door that, upon trying to open it, was discovered to be locked. It seemed she was in a jail cell of some sort. There were no windows in her cell or the empty one across from her, so she had no idea how much time had passed between the attack and now. Judging by the relative invincibility of the attacker and the lack of windows, she guessed that the Dio person she'd been hearing about had put out the order to kidnap her and her family.

_My family…! _With a sharp realization, Margret rushed to the bars and tried to look down the hallway to any other cells. "Hello?!" she forced herself to shout as she grasped the cold iron. "Uncle Frank! Anne! Are you down here?! Can you hear me?! Hello?!" She waited for a moment to listen for an answer back. Nothing reached her. "Please, I need help! Sis! Uncle Frank! Please, _help_ _me_!" she continued to shout as loud as she could. But, nobody answered back.

The anxious girl stumbled away from the bars and landed on her rear. With the cold of the cell seeping into her bones, Margret pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them. She felt tears sting her eyes and slip down her cheeks as she hiccupped and sobbed. The only brief bit of hope she experienced was in the realization that she could wake up soon. That she might see her mother again soon. That everything would be over soon.

Margret felt time pass, but she was unsure how much. Her sobs had quieted to infrequent sniffles and her tears had run dry. Her grip on her knees tightened as she heard footsteps echo down the hall toward her cell. _This is it. This is where…I…_

…_No. _The girl sniffed and rubbed her nose with her arm. She carefully rose to her feet as the footsteps grew closer. _I…have to help them out of here…! _Thinking fast, she recalled the description her guardian had described to her, and the voice that had even fooled the henchman of Dio. She quickly formed the image of her disguise around her just as the footsteps stopped in front of her cell.

"Eh? You're not the girl who was thrown in here," a man with long, unkempt black hair wondered as he approached the cell with a curious frown creasing his green lips. He wore a dark jumpsuit, but he was too small to have been the attacker from before. The ringlets adorning his wrists and ankles jingled, and his assorted vest shifted slightly as he stepped closer. His fiendish purple eyes glinted as he examined the gaudy mess of a fashion statement the sniper that had attacked them wore. The small man's eyes finally met the earthy brown ones of the disguise. "In fact, I don't think I've ever met _you_, before!"

"Ah, come on, don't you recognize me?" Margret coaxed in her best attempt at replicating his voice.

"Hmmm…" the man scratched his hair under his animal print taqiyah. "You look _sort of _familiar…"

"It's me!" _What was his name…Think, think, think! _"…Boot…Daddy?"

The man snapped his fingers in realization. "Right! You're that sniper guy, Boot Daddy! How the hell did you get into this cell? And I swore I saw a tiny girl get thrown in here before, where'd she go?"

"Ah, well, you see, she—" _Gotta take a leap…! _"—_She _escaped."

"…What?"

"And locked me in here," Margret added in a rush.

"Again, _how_?"

_Okay, think back to the story you heard from Brent, _Margret calculated, _he might've skimped a few details, but I _should _be able to weave a tale around it…! _"Ah, jeez, it was kind of shameful of me, honestly, but, see, I was having difficulty using my Stand during that fight, so I thought I'd try practicing again, but—" Her eyes darted to the bare walls. "—I ended up pulling rocks out of this underground cell, and…that girl was able to make a dozen or so copies of herself to attack me and shove me back where she'd been!" The man narrowed his eyes. _Shoot, did I mess up?_

Then the small person tipped his head back and laughed. "Wow, that _is _shameful! You weren't kidding! That's even more shameful than something I would do!" he chuckled.

"Haha, yeah, I guess I messed up," Margret conceded as she hesitantly laughed along.

The man suddenly stopped laughing and grew serious. "Something doesn't add up though," he stated.

"What doesn't?" the disguised girl asked.

"How'd you get your Stand Transplant back?" he asked as he pointed to the ball gag around the guise's neck.

…_Shit. _Margret almost covered her mouth instinctively but managed to keep her movement limited to a subtle twitch. "What do you mean?"

The small man began to pace in front of the cell. "Well, if the story I heard around the mansion is to be believed, you lost your Stand Transplant in the explosion that Hol Horse caused," he recalled. The short person stopped and turned to stare at Margret with a menacing scowl. "Were you _lying_?"

…_I really shouldn't be surprised that that jerk lied _again, _so why did I decide to trust his story in the first place? _As Margret had a miniature crisis, she cleared her voice in her best Boot Daddy impression and explained, "Well, you see, I _thought _the explosion had disintegrated it. But, when I went back to look around, turns out it was perfectly fine! I might've lost it in the explosion, but it wasn't destroyed!"

The small person stared skeptically into the cell. He hummed in thought. Margret could feel sweat drip down her neck, despite the chill of the room.

"That makes sense!" he suddenly exclaimed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. "Let's get you out of there!" The man unlocked the door and the rusty exit opened with a metallic squeal. Margret suppressed her excitement at the success of her performance and casually walked out of the cell. "I'm Nukesaku, by the way! I don't blame you for not remembering me, though," the man introduced with a grin.

_Lyn told me some Japanese words before. Doesn't that mean 'fool'? _…_Now I just feel sorry for the guy. But, enough pity. I need to find out where they're holding Uncle Frank and Sis._ "Weren't you guys holding the kid's dad, too? Maybe he'd have an idea where she went…" Margret suggested.

"Well, Hol your Horses," Nukesaku said cheerily while making jazz hands. Margret darted her eyes from side to side in the awkward silence that had been left by that meager joke. The small man noticeably wilted as he muttered, "Man, I can only do one thing right, huh…?" Regaining his composure, he explained, "The little girl apparently has a twin sister that was also captured."

"Perfect!" Margret exclaimed instinctively. Nukesaku looked on curiously. "Uh, I mean, don't twins have some sort of telepathic connection? She could probably find her sis with much more success than her codger of a dad." _Ugh, when can I ditch this disguise…?_

"Oh, that's a great idea! Then, we can dispose of the dad and just use the little girl to find her sister!" Dio's minion added enthusiastically.

"W-Wait, doesn't, uh," Margret fumbled a bit for words. "Doesn't Lord Dio need him for Stand Transplant research?" Nukesaku's eyes widened. _Did I say something wrong?_

"By Lord Dio, you're _right_! Of course, the pitiful manservant would forget! I'm a disgrace to vampirekind!" the self-conscious henchman sobbed.

Thisguy_ is a vampire? _"We-Well, look, I won't tell him a word of this. Then, you won't get in trouble!" _Not for speaking_ _out of line, at least, _Margret added inwardly.

"You'd really do that for me?" Nukesaku asked with tears in his eyes.

"Of course! We're both fellow servants, acting for the same cause! It's only natural we should watch each other's backs!" Margret enthused.

"Wow," the vampire sniffled. "You know, I'm sorry for not recognizing you earlier. You're a really nice guy."

"Heheh, well, I try," Margret chuckled. "So, would you mind leading me to where you're holding them?"

"Not at all! Follow me, please!" Nukesaku instructed as he turned and began to walk down the hall.

Margret followed close behind as she kept an eye out for either of her family members. Most of the cells they passed were occupied by at least one or two people—men, women, children, and even a few animals were all included, most of whom looked like they wanted to be anywhere else, but some seemed blatantly unstable or were unconscious. She chose instead to look at the back of the vampire she was following. Upon closer inspection, she swore she saw a feminine face staring back at her through Nukesaku's mass of hair. With a shaky breath, Margret let her eyes fall to the ground as their footsteps continued to echo off the thick cobblestone.

There seemed to be no end to the underground block of cells until they finally reached what looked like a dead end.

At Margret's apparent confusion, Nukesaku chimed in, "Oh, there's a secret passage to the lower floor. It opens by using that thing!"

The vampire gestured to the rightmost corner, in which what looked like the screen of an old computer was embedded in the wall with a keyboard sitting in front of it. A small plaque with tiny print sat on the wall directly left of the screen.

Nukesaku walked up to the plaque and began to read aloud, "Assume that a cloud consists of weak water droplets suspended (uniformly distributed, and at rest) in air, and consider a raindrop falling through them. What is the acceleration of the raindrop? Assume that when the raindrop hits a water droplet, the droplet's water gets added to the useless raindrop. Also, assume that the raindrop is spherical at all times. From your solution, add 600,000, divide by 2, subtract 79,266, then multiply by 2, in that order." The vampire scowled. "What was the code again?" he muttered as he pressed some random keys on the keyboard. Once his finger hit a seventh key, the screen buzzed angrily. "It's only got room for _six _buttonpresses?! But, this must be some _huge _number! How the hell can you even…?" Nukesaku shook his head and turned to Margret. "Maybe we should ask Lord Dio for the code."

The timid girl stiffened. "I…don't think that's necessary," she bluffed.

"Really? Are you saying you can _solve _this monster?"

As Margret stepped closer to the plaque and reread the problem, the gears began to turn in her head. With a more confident answer this time, she said, "Yeah…I think I can. Do you have a pen and paper?"

"Nope, but I have a rock!" the vampire offered as he held out the pointed stone. Margret took it with a humorless expression before dragging it across the ground. It was hard to see, but it left a chalky mark behind. With a deep breath, Margret began to think carefully through the physics problem.

Several minutes passed in silence, apart from Nukesaku asking every once in a while if Margret was any closer to the solution. Her guise would answer "no" and ask politely to not be disturbed until he was done. Even so, Nukesaku would always forget, so eventually Margret gave up on asking for silence.

With no idea how much time had passed after she'd started working on the problem, Margret approached the terminal with the remnants of her chalky equations and loose ends scribbled out with the same tool left behind. "4-4-1-8-6-8," she muttered. The device dinged happily and a previously unseen panel in the wall opened. _Good. I was afraid I was off by a few places. Who knows what would have happened if I'd guessed wrong too many times?_

"Wow, I can't believe you did it!" the vampire cheered as he jumped for joy. "You're a lot smarter than I gave you credit for!"

"Well, shall we?" Margret asked more hurriedly than she had planned to.

As the two stepped past the threshold, they saw a curling pit of stairs descending almost endlessly. The sconces attached to the wall on each level served to give little light to the unending abyss of narrow steps with no railing.

Swallowing thickly, the girl followed Nukesaku down into the depths of the mansion. The only sound that accompanied them as they descended was the uncomfortably lonely echo of their steps off the stone walls.

After Margret counted step number 108, the passage opened to a hallway that looked identical to the one they had left, with stone floors and stone walls that seemed impossibly sturdy. Even so, as the two stepped out of the elevator, the atmosphere of this hallway felt…_off_, somehow. It certainly wasn't as chilly as the upper block of cells, but Margret wasn't about to count her blessings.

"Last I remember," Nukesaku spoke up, startling Margret out of her thoughts, "the holding cell for current experimentation victims should be just around the corner down this hallway."

"L-Lead on, then," Margret instructed. Nukesaku acquiesced and strode forward with the disguised girl close behind. "So, can I ask something?" the girl asked. The vampire nodded and looked over his shoulder at her. Unable to quell her morbid curiosity, she continued, "That kid wasn't in the same holding cell as her father and sis. Was she just gonna be killed, or…?"

"Oh, she probably would have been experimented on eventually," he explained. "We just have more subjects in this building than we have room to keep them, so only the subjects we're planning on working on right away get the esteemed privilege of living in the cells close to the operating and probing rooms. It used to be a lot less organized. At least, that's what I gathered when I tagged along with Lord Dio and a few others." Nukesaku's expression became guilty. "Well, I say 'tagged along', but I kind of, sort of snuck in and got chewed out by the higher-ups. Only certain people are allowed down here, you see."

_And that _didn't _stop you from letting me down here? Though I should count my blessings._ _Hopefully I can finish my business down here quickly before one of these "higher-ups" comes down here. _"So, the 'operating' and 'probing' rooms are…?"

"I don't know anything about their purposes, just that they're super important," he shared as he stopped and gestured to the two doors on either side of the hallway. "See?"

Margret halted and observed the room on the left. She squinted through the foggy glass and noted an examination table like she would see in some of the sci-fi movies Anne would put on. It even had cuffs on bungee cords, each extending to an oddly anachronistic stone pillar surrounding the table, presumably for restraining the victim. A medical trolley with several sharp implements had been wheeled directly next to the table. A bookshelf with several heavy-looking books sat in the corner against the wall, right next to a door that seemed to lead to another room.

The quiet girl swallowed and turned to the door on the right side of the hallway. "Oh, did you want to look in here, too?" Nukesaku asked as he approached the door.

"Oh, n-no, that isn't necessary—!" Margret cringed and closed her eyes as the vampire opened the door. She waited for a shout, an attack, _something_. When nothing came after a few seconds, the girl opened her eyes and saw that the room in front of them was completely empty. There wasn't even any furniture inside except for a single wooden chair.

_Why would _this_ be called the "probing room", then?_

Nukesaku looked back and grinned upon seeing the relief on the disguise's face. "Don't worry!" he reassured. "The higher-ups that would usually come down here are either busy or absent!"

_Why wouldn't you _open _with that?! _Margret pushed down the thought and cleared her throat. "Well, at least we won't get caught on this little excursion, then."

"Oh, yeah, there'd be _hell _to pay if we did," the vampire remarked as he began leading Margret down the hall once more, "_especially _if we got caught by you-know-who…" After only hearing an acknowledging hum from Margret's guise, he turned back and asked, "You…_do _know who I'm talking about, right?"

"Okay, pretend I'm a bit slow—"

"Uh-huh?"

"—and don't know who you're talking about?" Margret finished uncertainly. She waited for him to grow suspicious, but that moment never came.

"I don't blame you for not knowing. It's a miracle that I know, anyhow!" Nukesaku bragged while turning back forward. "They're a group of Stand users that've been traveling around in order to run errands for Dio. They're called the Hexagon Brothers."

"The…Hexagon Brothers?" Margret parroted.

"Or was it just 'Hexagon'…? Nah, I'm pretty sure it was the first thing I said. There are six of them, after all, and they act like they're all related to each other. Anyways, they're not to be messed with, if you know what's good for you," the small vampire warned.

_Given this man's track record over the duration I've been with him, I'm not sure what I should anticipate their threat level to be. Regardless, I'll keep those names on hand just in case._

Soon enough, the pair came to two cells sitting directly across from each other. One was occupied by two people: one was an overweight Russian man with a flowing white beard, the other was a slim German woman with crimson hair and stunning silver eyes. In the other cell were two other people—the two people Margret had been looking for. They both seemed to look terrified, with Frank burying most of his terror under a stoic expression. The disguised girl nearly wept.

"Uncle—!" she stopped upon seeing Nukesaku eye her skeptically, but the outcry had clearly grabbed Frank and Anne's attention. Margret cleared her throat and attempted to compensate for accidentally falling back into her regular voice by saying, "I was… gonna say that we're gonna make you cry 'uncle'!" She followed with a laugh, which seemed to lower the vampire's guard again as he snickered. Margret made eye contact with Frank using her guise. _Please, _please _don't think I'm actually the bad guy…!_

Frank's expression displayed confusion while Anne's eyebrows rose. Nukesaku cleared his throat and stated, "Now, you cretins, as future servants to Lord Dio, you must follow our directions. You must accompany us in the search for the other little girl who is believed to be part of your little family. There are no ifs, ands, or buts, and _no _funny business, understand?"

"Why should we help _you_?" Frank interrogated.

"Well, that girl, _Margret_, would definitely be _completely_ incapable of coming back for you two _on her own_, so we need _help _from _you two_ in order to find her!" Margret emphasized. Frank appeared to collect his thoughts for a moment before his expression mirrored Anne's.

"You're talking weird, Boot Daddy. Are you okay?" Nukesaku asked.

"Never better," Margret sighed.

"Alright," Frank conceded gravely. "Lead the way."

"Gladly. It's all I'm good at," the short vampire boasted as he pulled out the key from earlier and unlocked the door.

"Is that some sort of master key or something?" Margret inquired as Nukesaku yanked the cell door open.

"Yeah, for the most part. After all, I'm the guide of the mansion! At least, in title. There are some doors I can't unlock though, like Lord Dio's door, for instance. I'm typically not supposed to open cell doors, either, but I think this is a special case," the two-faced man explained while pocketing the key.

As Frank and Anne made it to the exit, the mansion guide began to lead them back the way they had come. For a moment, Anne and Frank just stared at Margret's disguise. The café owner grinned at her, while Anne gave a quick wink. The timid girl grinned back through her disguise before stoning her face and letting the pair walk in front of her.

"Hey, _Kotzbrocken_!" a vulgar accented voice hissed from the opposite cell. Margret turned to see it was the German woman standing at the bars. She adjusted the rags clothing her body with a grimace and accused, "Shouldn't _we _come along for the search as well? The more the merrier, right?"

"Yeah, the more the merrier!" the Russian man echoed.

Nukesaku, who had stopped earlier, looked back to the girl's guise. "Well? What's the call?" he asked.

"That won't be necessary," Margret replied after giving the issue some thought. "For all we know, you might try and escape." _There's also the fact that I don't know how they'll act once they're outside. Dio picks up all kinds, from what I heard. If either of them tried to kill us, this would all be for nothing._

"You heard the man," the two-faced man supported. "Know your place."

"_Leck mich am Arsch_…" the woman swore under her breath.

Suddenly, there was a cacophonous, muffled screaming sound that echoed off the walls of the hallway further behind them. Margret was the only one who looked back to the source of the agonized screeches. She nearly teared up from the sound alone. It was as if someone had been left alone in a dark hole for years upon years and had just finally had enough, had wanted to be _free_, but no one would save him. Every person who listened seemed to have some sort of dread pull down on their chest as that sad, empty voice seemed to have no limit to its yowls. Even Nukesaku seemed to be completely paralyzed with fear.

_That sounded like…_ "Nukesaku, what was that?" Margret struggled to inquire.

The two-faced vampire refused to answer with words. He could only tremble as a reply.

"Do I…want to know?" the disguised twin wondered cautiously.

Nukesaku looked back carefully to Margret and responded in the smallest voice she had ever heard, "No. You don't." Then, with a shuddering breath, he began walking back the way they had come once more.

Anne followed soon after the vampire had spoken despite the continuous, wordless cries. Frank walked after her but stopped upon his foot hitting something that rolled across the floor. The man picked up the object and examined it as Margret came walking up behind him. She couldn't discern much from the cylindrical design, but she noted the subtle hint of a charcoal smell coming from it. When the girl looked at Frank's face, he made eye contact and mouthed a single word, a name: "Lyn."

"What's the _holdup_?" the vampire asked from further ahead.

"Get moving," Margret commanded audibly as she gave Frank a nudge. The café owner feigned a defiant look as he snuck the item into his apron pocket and continued forward.

Margret couldn't be thankful enough as soon as they reached the stairs, Despite the tiring trek back up, soon she'd be closer to the surface where she felt she could breathe. A few moments during the climb up passed in surprisingly peaceful silence. The quiet girl took a moment to finally let herself see that there might be hope. They might _actually _make it out of this situation okay.

"Do you think we might need to gather a search party?" Nukesaku's wonderings echoed quietly off the walls of the cylindrical passage.

"No!" Margret denied. The smaller man looked back to her with a confused expression. "L-Like I told those two prisoners, help won't be necessary."

"But, considering how this girl was able to trick you before, and how difficult these two might be without more than one person, don't you think it'd be better to enlist the help of one of the other mansion residents?" Nukesaku advised. Margret looked at him with her eyes blown wide. He began to wring his hands as he turned to look at the stairs. "Look, I know it's out of nowhere, coming from a slow guy like me, but you've gotta at least think of Lord Dio's best interest in every case!"

"Then, wouldn't you understand if he wanted to pursue this on his own?" Anne chimed in. Margret was startled by her contribution to the debate, but what startled her more was that her twin kept going with a dismal expression painting her features, "From the sound of it, he screwed up at least twice in _big_ ways in the past few days. I'm sure he feels completely useless, with how he messed up before. If _Lord_ _Dio_ found out about that, there'd be no way for this guy to recover! His reputation would be tarnished, and he'd probably be kicked to the curb! But, if he goes out there alone and apprehends the escaped kid, he'd still have Lord Dio's respect! Wouldn't you do the same, to prove your worth to Lord Dio?"

_Wow, that turned out to be a lot more well-thought-out than I thought it'd be,_ _but what matters is if she managed to convince Fool—I mean, Nukesaku._

The two-faced vampire began to tear up. "You're absolutely right, little girl! I feel so awful for doubting Boot Daddy like that! I'm sorry, I should've known better!" he wailed.

"I-It's okay, don't worry about it," Margret comforted as she stealthily gave Anne a literal and figurative pat on the back. Anne huffed a small, almost silent laugh.

After a sigh of relief from Nukesaku, they finally reached the top of the unending staircase in the hallway leading to the first block of cells. "I'll just take you guys back to the entrance," he sniffled as he shuffled along. Frank, Anne, and Margret's disguise all exchanged a quiet look before continuing down the hall.

After passing through the cell block and traversing dark hallway after seemingly endless hallway, they entered a dilapidated grand hall of sorts from a side door. The room was adorned with darkly-colored, dismal bricks making up the walls and misshapen ceramic tiles making up the floor, exposing the dirt and sand beneath. Several tarnished, torn tapestries on the wall hung still over the closed windows—the sunlight bleeding from them into the fabric and creating fiery orange rings. A mural that seemed to display a whimsical scene of a ballroom night on the ceiling above was cracked, splintered, and faded beyond repair. The curved, dusty, stone staircases leading up to a set of double doors had broken down to an almost unusable degree. And yet these stairways almost perfectly accented the tunnel entrance that lay beneath the second-floor landing.

The vampire pointed to the double doors across from the tunnel entrance. "That's the way out. Sorry I can't help you any further than that, but I'd kind of…get dusted, you know?" he explained with a nervous chuckle.

The disguised girl observed the large hole in the wall. "Where does that tunnel lead?" Margret asked curiously as they reached the center of the room.

"Oh, that leads to the mansion," Nukesaku replied matter-of-factly.

"But, aren't we _in _Dio's mansion?" Frank wondered.

"Quiet, maggot!" the two-faced vampire scolded.

"I thought we were in Dio's mansion, though?" pressed Anne, folding her arms.

"Oh, this _used _to be his place of residence," Nukesaku answered without hesitation, "but, we ended up moving out of here pretty quickly once we saw how drab it was. We had to put all of this space to _some _use, though, so we decided to devote the building to Stand research. Unfortunately, it's still a bit of a trek from the mansion we call home."

"Well, wait, then why were you prowling the cells downstairs?" Margret inquired.

The self-conscious vampire seemed startled by this question. He started wringing his hands. Then, he confessed in a small voice, "I…wanted a Stand Transplant." Margret's guise and the two prisoners seemed to be waiting for him to continue. He dropped to his knees, as if the weight of this confession was too much to bear, and continued, "I'd heard Lord Dio's conversations with Enyaba and Lyn about them, and I thought I could use one of them to finally be more useful to Lord Dio than I ever could be as just a humble servant. It sounds like he wants to go into an all-out war with the Joestars, and I know I wouldn't be able to venture far past the base, but if I just had a _bit_ more strength—a Stand of my own—I know I could help him! I know it!" His emphatic monologue was met with silence. "Well, of course _you _wouldn't understand," he snarked at Frank and Anne. He looked to the disguised Margret with a more hopeful expression. "But, you understand, right, Boot Daddy?"

Margret took a knee in front of Nukesaku and looked him in the eye. For the first time since she'd arrived, Margret felt the words flow easily from her lips, as she empathized quietly, "I know how you feel. You want to protect the person you love in whatever way possible. When you love someone that much, there's almost no limit to what you can do." She smiled as she encouraged him, "I'm sure you're well on your way to being a valuable asset for that person. You've done a lot for me today, after all. If you can do that—"

"You can do anything!" Anne interjected with staged enthusiasm.

Nukesaku smiled genuinely. "Thank you. Thank you so much. You know, I'm really glad I met you to—!"

Suddenly, the double doors leading outside slammed open, allowing some of the sunlight to filter in in an arc spanning about a sixth of the room. Margret bolted to her feet and looked to the entrance while Nukesaku hissed like a cat and retreated under the western remnants of the staircase. Frank and Anne looked on in horror as the real Boot Daddy walked past the threshold. A moment of silence passed. The real Boot Daddy pointed at the disguised Margret with his mouth open in preparation to say something. Margret mirrored the motion, pointing at the undisguised man. Time seemed to stop as the two stared at each other while Frank and Anne were frozen in shock.

Nukesaku finally looked out from his hiding spot and shouted, "Wait, there's _two _of you?!"

That set the real Boot Daddy off, as he reached down and drew a pistol from one of his belts. At the same moment, Frank produced the cylinder he'd claimed earlier from his pocket and threw it towards the ground as hard as he could. As soon as the object hit the ground, a large cloud of smoke exploded from its contents, which covered almost half the room in an almost opaque pink haze. The sudden panic disrupted the shy girl's focus, and so her disguise vanished. Margret felt something move in front of her from her side. The sound of a gunshot rang out shortly after. She heard a thudding sound.

"Run!" Frank commanded as he grabbed Margret and pulled her into his arms.

"W-Wait!" shouted the girl, scanning their surroundings as best she could in the cloud not even sunlight could seem to pierce. "Wh-Where's—?!"

About half a meter away was Anne, lying face down on the ground. Margret breathed a sigh of relief as Frank put her down and hoisted the unconscious Anne up instead. Keeping a firm grip on the quiet girl's hand, he began making for the door.

"Where the hell did you—?!" they heard Boot Daddy's voice yell dangerously close by before it was cut off by a violent hissing sound and a grunt from their assailant. "You idiot, what the hell are you—?!"

"Boot Daddy!" Margret heard Nukesaku's voice in the fog, "I'll keep this imposter busy! You go search for the girl!"

Choking back a sob, the timid girl called back, "Thank you, Nukesaku." Then, Margret, Frank, and Anne were past the threshold and out in the evening light. The timid twin and her father turned and cooperated to slam the double doors shut before rushing away from the building. Despite her desire to forget this had ever happened, Margret couldn't stop from burning every detail of the abandoned structure into her mind, as the violent shouts of the songbirds heralded their escape.

The girl could only keep her frazzled mind focused on one task: run. Frank ran and Margret kept pace as best she could. They kept running and running, turning onto street after street, dashing around corner after corner. They ran until their legs howled at them in pain and yet they kept running.

"Do you…have any…idea…" Margret panted as she kept running, "where we're…going…?"

"Yeah, there's…a kid that…owes me…a favor…" Frank wheezed in a strained reply.

As the family slowed down in front of a two-story stone building that had seen better days, Margret finally got a glimpse of Frank's face before he stepped toward the door. His expression was hardened into a wall of stoicism, as if to hide the waves of emotion from tiding over and washing everything away. The coffeehouse owner banged on the door with a specific rhythm: a short knock, a long knock, then a beat passed, followed by three quick knocks, a beat, and four more fast knocks.

A second passed before the door cracked open. A dark-skinned boy with green hair of several shades narrowed his oceanic blue eyes at Frank. "What do you want?" he snapped from the small gap.

"We need a place to stay for a day or so," Frank requested. The boy's lip twitched up in a silent snarl before the adoptive father continued, "I don't think it's too much for the guy who rescued you to ask."

The youth adjusted his faded tee with a frown. Then he sighed, "Fine. Today and tomorrow. That's all you get."

The door opened the rest of the way to reveal a dingy hovel of a home. A ragged couch sat against the wall across from a wooden dining table that had seen better days. The wooden staircase leading to the second floor looked untrustworthy and the closet door across from the stairway was falling off its hinges.

Frank shoved his way into the room with his free arm, with Margret close behind. "Soft Cell, I need a tarp, a breathing tube, rubber gloves, a flashlight, and lots of gauze, _stat_," he commanded with the authority of a military general.

The boy, apparently called "Soft Cell," brushed off being pushed aside upon listening to the former doctor's tone. Without a word, he dashed over to the closet and began pulling out all sorts of medical supplies. Once he'd found the tarp, he rushed back over to the dining table and spread the smooth sheet over the wooden surface. Frank gave a curt, acknowledging nod before approaching the makeshift worktop and laying Anne carefully onto it. Margret had been completely confused by her guardian's grave shift in tone until she stepped closer and got a better look at her sister.

A horrifying hole gaped through the chest of Anne's shirt and painted the fabric of her pastel overalls a deep red color. The energetic girl's eyes were frozen wide in fear. Her body was completely motionless. Her chest didn't even rise and fall. Margret seized up as she gazed up at Frank, who seemed to have the same red splotches blending into the color of his untorn top. He met the eyes of his startled daughter and took a breath. "She'll be okay. I swear," he assured. "Just get upstairs and rest."

_Why don't I…No, I _have _to believe him._ "I…I'm staying," she asserted quietly.

Frank sighed, "Fine, but this requires all of my concentration. Just sit quietly on that couch over there, okay?"

Margret nodded tepidly and sat on the surprisingly plush surface of the couch, which gave under her weight and let her sink. Despite her slightly uncomfortable posture because of the furniture, she folded her hands in her lap and patiently waited for her sister to wake up.

She watched silently as Soft Cell continued to hover close to the working surgeon. The boy was kept far from still, as Frank would frequently request one of the shiny, metal tools resting on the small, wilting wooden table—also blanketed by a tarp—that Soft Cell had brought down from the second floor. Margret vaguely recalled Frank asking if the others had kept any supplies for a blood transfusion. Soft Cell replied in the negative, causing the adoptive father to seethe, "Well, then _get _some," followed by Anne's medical details. Despite the boy's earlier countenance, he took Frank's harsh commands on the chin and marched off into the night.

Margret couldn't block out Frank's murmured orders of, "Under My Skin, press in _here_," or "Under My Skin, small incision _there_." No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't block out the fluid, squishing noises of a surgeon's work, she couldn't suppress the sight of Frank pulling out the bloody remains of a bullet piece by piece. She knew she wanted to say something, _anything_ to ease the palpable tension in her guardian's shoulders, that made his back muscles squeeze under his shirt. Every once in a while, the doctor would take half a step back and wipe the sweat from his brow. As his hands fell to his sides in that split second, even in the dim light provided by the flashlight, Margret could see the copious blood shining on his gloves. The girl could catch a glimpse of her sister, hooked up to a complex-looking machine by several plastic tubes, blanketed in layers of gauze, and still wearing that horrified expression on her ghostly pale face. She swallowed thickly at the sight, but such a loud sound in the silence of the room didn't deter her adoptive father, as he immediately stepped back up to the table and continued working.

About an hour had passed before Soft Cell returned. His torn-up jeans and bright sneakers were smudged with dirt. After approaching the table, he untied a full-looking hemp bag he'd acquired and handed one of the packets to Frank. The surgeon looked at the single packet and scowled. "I'll need more than _that_," he scolded.

"That's why I _brought _more, dipshit," Soft Cell snarked in reply.

"Just get the needle and blood pressure monitor," the surgeon snapped. The green-haired boy acquiesced without a word.

After a few preparatory procedures, from what Margret could see, Frank attached a plastic tube from one of the blood packets to a small needle. He cleaned Anne's wrist and then carefully inserted the needle into the vein that stood out brightly on her skin.

Time passed, with Frank continuously feeding blood into his daughter while Soft Cell kept a close watch. Margret sat by watching in silence, feeling colder with every slow moment that went by. Labored seconds turned into sluggish minutes, slowly but surely passing inevitably into hours. The quiet girl could only feel time pass; she dared not tear her eyes away.

The time came when they had transfused as much blood as Anne seemed to need. "Come on," she heard Frank coax hoarsely as he removed the needle and bandaged the girl's punctured wrist. "Please," he begged softly as he pressed his ear to Anne's chest. "Anne…Anne, wake up…Shit…!" the surgeon swore. He turned and called out to Soft Cell, "Bring out your Stand, we're performing a cardiac massage!"

The green-haired boy looked befuddled as he came closer. After Frank muttered some sharp, short directions to him, Soft Cell took a deep breath and summoned his Stand. It stood out like a creature of the night dipped in neon paint, with a barely humanoid structure and a clashing color scheme that hurt Margret's eyes. "You heard him, Tainted Love," the boy goaded. The colorful wraith nodded and floated closer to Anne. Then, the spirit reached one of its large hands into Anne's chest and began to squeeze in a rhythm set by the doctor, who pressed his ear to the girl's chest once more. Frank told Soft Cell to stop, listened for a heartbeat, then commanded the boy to resume, and so the process continued with seemingly no end.

Margret had no control over her body, as her legs carried her to the makeshift operating table. The girl walked around the side and grasped Anne's hand, feeling the artificial pump of her blood. Frank seemed too focused on monitoring the heartbeat of the injured girl; his eyes were closed and he seemed to be silently mouthing something. Margret tightened the chilly, clammy link to her sister with pleading eyes.

_Sis, you have to wake up…You _have _to…!_

The girl had lost count of the amount of times Frank had repeated the process, until, finally, he went silent after Soft Cell pulled back. At the same time, Margret felt the pulse under her hand quiet into a bleak, empty silence. The surgeon opened his eyes and removed his head from Anne's chest. He gazed at the girl's fixed expression for several moments. Uncle Frank carefully slipped an arm under Anne's back and rubbed it comfortingly. After a few moments, the adoptive father began to cry. He hugged his daughter's lifeless body close as he cried, "I'm sorry…I'm so sorry…I couldn't…I couldn't rescue you…"

_I don't…understand. _

_This…can't be possible, right? Frank could help our mom, so what's stopping him from helping Sis? It can't…be true. I don't believe it._

_I _can't_ believe it._

Margret said nothing. She didn't cry, she didn't shout Anne's name, she didn't voice regrets about not being able to help her. She could only stare at her only source of strength and hold it tight.

Everything suddenly felt washed out. Everything seemed _lifeless_ and dull. Margret wasn't even aware of the passage of time, but Frank seemed to be. At some point, the guardian pulled back from his fallen girl and wiped the tears from his eyes. With a deep, shaky breath, he set about closing his daughter's chest. His needlework made it seem as if there had been no incision or hole in the first place. After a brief breath, Frank set to cleaning Anne up.

The timid girl hadn't noticed Soft Cell had left until he came up to the surgeon with a shopping bag. When the adoptive father turned, the green-haired boy handed him the bag. "I thought…it'd be better if she wore some nicer clothes," he huffed.

Frank looked between the bag and Soft Cell for a moment before turning back to his daughter on the table. Then, he removed his rubber gloves and pulled the identical clothes out of the bag. He gave the boy a wordless look. Soft Cell rolled his eyes and turned away from the table with his arms folded. Frank silently dressed Anne in the clean clothes. After he had finished, with a heavy breath, he gently closed Anne's eyes and mouth.

"Boss," Soft Cell spoke up in a surprisingly soft tone, "do you want me to—"

"No," the café owner denied. "It's fine."

The haggard-looking boy hummed in thought. "Well, I'll be here," he stated detachedly. "Just use the mattress upstairs when you get back."

Frank looked to Soft Cell. "Thanks," he said.

"Whatever," the boy huffed before stretching his arms above his head.

The adoptive father slowly lifted Anne into his arms, inadvertently detaching Margret's grip on her sister's hand. The shy girl looked on as her sister was carried away to the door. Without hesitation, she followed along. Frank shifted the girl in his arms to one arm and gripped Margret's tiny hand with his own free one. After they'd walked out the door and Soft Cell had locked it, the family of two began walking, searching for a good place for Anne to rest.

The girl had no recollection of how far they'd walked or even where they'd ended up. She only seemed capable of reaching conclusions again when Frank was knelt over the hole he had dug and was covering her sister's body with dirt kissed by the dawning sun.

"She can't be dead…" Margret whispered the first words she'd spoken since the night before. "She _can't _be…"

Frank gazed at his remaining daughter with a solemn expression. She couldn't discern what he was thinking. Then, he embraced her tightly. "I'm sorry, Margret. I thought…I could do it, but…If I had just…If I had been more careful…If I hadn't brought you both here…None of this would've happened," he lamented quietly.

_He thinks it's his fault…?_ _But…if it's…anyone's fault…_

She locked herself in her thoughts for the rest of the day. When they got back to the abandoned building, she and Frank retreated to the bedroom above. Once her body hit the mattress, she refused to move from it. Her father fell into an exhausted sleep with his arms wrapped around her, but Margret stayed awake. She couldn't stop thinking. When Frank woke up, he left for a short while before he came back up with bagged snacks Soft Cell had found for them. She thought as she picked at her food. She thought as she periodically quenched her parched throat. She thought as Frank held her, comforting her without a word.

She thought back to that moment in the smoke. She remembered hearing the enemy's gun go off. She remembered feeling a brush of air and clothing against her. She remembered looking down to Anne, who had fallen down. She remembered Anne being right in front of where the disguised girl had previously been standing.

_My fault._

Time passed. The next day came, and Frank and Margret left Soft Cell behind. The silent girl only followed her father, who seemed to grow more frustrated with every step. It wasn't until late afternoon, when they'd reached the threshold of the café once more, that Margret realized the root of his aggravation.

Memories blurred and bled together like burnt film until a moment in the wash of recollections spoke out to the girl. She looked not at herself, but at a frail older woman with hazel eyes and crow's feet. The woman stood across a kitchen counter from a younger looking brunette. The frail woman was Margret, in disguise as the brunette's, Suki's, mother. It was…a plan to get the girl to stay in Egypt, where she'd be in less danger than if she left to travel with the Joestars.

"It… wasn't just that," Margret answered as she lay down the knife next to the vegetables she'd been chopping. "I… I never told you all of what happened." The guise made eye contact with Suki and continued, "Have you ever thought about why Kyuu looks so different from you and Aoi? That boy…he's your _half_-brother. He isn't the son of your father."

As she wove a bitter tale, the memories of the past few days came rushing back without her consent, impacting the sensitive girl where she hurt the most. Everything came crashing over and into her faster than she could parse what she remembered. She couldn't keep herself from crying as she spoke. Margret could only barely restrain herself from bawling. "I just…" she sniffled, confessing with the honesty that had been pushed down into the deepest depths of her heart. "don't want to be left alone…"

Suki was still convinced to leave, but by that point, Margret had lost her motivation. She wanted to stop talking. She wanted to stop listening. She just wanted everything to be over with. The following morning, Margret was able to come up with a logical enough excuse for her sudden apathy to satisfy her companion, thankfully.

That evening, after everyone had left, Margret and Frank began packing. It was too dangerous to stay anywhere near what would soon become a warzone, and so Frank decided that they would move back to Hong Kong until everything blew over. Then, they could retrieve Anne, and give her a proper burial with the rest of the Qián family.

Night had fallen just as they'd finished. The warm, deep reds and browns of the café seemed out of place with the shadows cast by the darkness outside. Margret was understandably apprehensive as they heaved their bags to the door. She adjusted the blue overalls she'd decided to wear after setting her bag down. Frank looked back to the café and took a deep breath. "I'll miss this place," he muttered wistfully. Margret nodded noncommittally as she committed the place to memory. The warm milk and frothy desserts she'd enjoyed at the counter, the games she'd played and conversations she'd shared with the customers, their companions rebelling against Dio, and…

Margret blinked the memories away as her guardian turned to her. "I just need to take care of one little thing real quick, okay?" The girl shrank back. Frank put his hands on her shoulders. "I'll only be gone for a minute, two at most. I'll be back before you know it."

Margret nodded hesitantly before her adoptive father turned and disappeared behind the counter. She then heard the squeal of a heavy metal door opening and shutting before silence fell in the room once again. The girl couldn't stop herself from tiptoeing closer to the freezer door her adoptive father had used.

_Didn't he pack everything already?_

Suddenly, the door to the café creaked open, in what felt like a disgusting sensation of déjà vu. Margret felt her stomach drop as she heard a low, blood-curdling growl of, "Urryyyyyyyyyy…" in a voice she faintly recognized. Slowly turning to the door, she witnessed Nukesaku slowly clambering around the door like a tarantula.

"So, you thought you'd fooled me…?" he drawled with the feminine face that Margret had seen under his hair.

The panicking girl couldn't think. She couldn't speak. All she could do was stumble backward toward the kitchen.

"You said all those nice things without even batting an eye," the two-faced vampire hissed as he lumbered after his prey. His lip twisted into a horrific scowl. "You _lied_…You were laughing the _whole _time, weren't you?"

"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about…!" Margret defended as she backed into the kitchen. She tripped backward over something but continued to edge away from the approaching monster.

"I may be an idiot, but I know a _girl's _voice when I hear one. You had the _audacity _to thank me after I blatantly betrayed _Lord Dio_," Nukesaku growled. "Now, you're gonna pay."

"P-Please…" Margret whimpered as her back hit the pantry shelf. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shook her head. "Please don't take me back…Please…!"

"After what _you've_ done?" the vampire interrogated. He chuckled darkly before sneering. "Someone like you doesn't even _deserve_ to serve in Lord Dio's court, as a Stand user _or _Stand Transplant! You're gonna die right here, right now…" Nukesaku threatened as he prepared to lunge forward.

"Bachelor's…Paradise..!" Margret cried. The Stand briefly flashed into existence next to its user before ten copies of the girl appeared to hold the line.

As they rushed for Nukesaku, the two-faced vampire evaded them by crawling up the wall like a cockroach. "Die!" he shouted as he vaulted off the wall towards his target with fangs bared.

_This is…how I die…? We're so close…! But, maybe, then I could…But, Uncle Frank would be…! _

Margret couldn't parse through her frenzied thoughts, her desires stretching her in two different directions that forced her into mental strain that made her head pound with the remnant echoes of her perceptions.

_I don't know…what to…! _

The pained girl could only let out a scream.

Something invisible seemed to punch through Nukesaku's cheek, forcing him onto the ground. A pinprick of a hole began to ooze on his face before instantly patching itself up. Frank stepped out from the freezer door, picked up a stray kitchen knife, and rushed toward the villain. The coffeehouse owner stabbed the vampire multiple times, but every injury was patched up as the vampire struggled against the former doctor.

The café owner wrestled back against Nukesaku, attempting to keep him pinned to the ground, but the superhuman strength of the vampire proved too much for him. With a victorious grin, the two-faced villain shoved four of his fingers into the side of Frank's throat. Instead of forcing the air out of the father's lungs with a quick jab, Nukesaku's digits embedded themselves into the thin skin of Frank's neck. The quickly paling café owner put his power towards removing the vampire's hand, allowing the two-faced enemy to gain the upper hand and pin Frank to the floor. The light was starting to fade from Frank's stormy eyes. Nukesaku looked back to her with a look that said, "You're next."

Margret's mind shut down, forcing her into unconsciousness.

When she awoke, she felt like she had been submerged. Instead of water, what felt like a thick, gooey film enveloped her body in warmth. That was the only thing she could feel as she was suspended in this strange space. She could only hear muffled voices as she groggily stared out the tiny circular window in front of her. What greeted her eyes was blurry, but she could make out three figures: two figures hooded by deep brown cloaks and one figure wrapped in white.

"You're _sure _she'll land in Hong Kong?" a masculine voice, coming from the white-adorned figure asked in concern.

_I know…that voice… _Margret thought sluggishly.

"Unlike your kind, when we state that something shall occur, it will," a voice gurgled from the taller, brown-cloaked individual wearing an ornate necklace over their hood.

"Could we not have escorted her onto a boat?" a timider voice wondered from the shorter brown-hooded figure, who was pressing buttons on the pad in front of the window. Her cloak was matted and torn in several spots, but the darkness within was endless.

"Of course not. She must be sent to safety as swiftly as possible according to our landlord. Instant is the swiftest speed we are capable of, with the transportation device, so, in conclusion, we must follow through with the aforementioned transportation device," the tall figure expressed in what sounded like condescension. The figure turned and murmured, "I still fail to see what Coqelorum observes as so intriguing about these beings."

"I'm…not your landlord," the white figure sighed.

"Nonsense. You allow us to reside within your territory and shelter us. You do not tend to us as a caretaker, you do not carry intimacy in your actions with us as a parent or guardian, and you do not command us to perform tasks as a manager. There is no more suitable term," the authoritative figure rattled off in reply.

"The coordinates are set, Koryphaios," the shy figure reported with a timid salute.

"Please, also remain uninfluenced so heavily by these beings," the figure called "Koryphaios" requested.

A buzzing feeling rippled across her skin. She felt sleep clamber for her once more. As her eyes drooped shut, she witnessed the white figure approach the window and look in.

_He looks like…an angel…_

The figure in white comforted in a warm voice, "Please…live a happy life for me—"

When the girl awoke, she was swathed in blankets. Upon sitting up, she saw she was in a bedroom, with blank white walls and plush pale beds. She looked around curiously before pulling her hands out from under the sheets and observing them, pressing them to her body.

_I'm…alive…? But I thought…_ She tried to think back to what had happened before her encounter with the strange figures, but, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't recall anything before then. She couldn't recall most of anything after they moved to Egypt. _Uncle Frank is still there…I'll have to get back to him! But, how?_

The girl slid out of bed and walked to the window. Gazing outside, she noticed several fancy, red roofs jutting out with ornate chimneys that spewed noxious smoke into the smog she was all too sure blanketed the city. _I'm…in Hong Kong. Just like they said I'd be. But…_She caught her reflection in the mirror and frowned at it._ Who am I…? I know Margret…and I know Anne…I'm _one _of them, but which one? _

Looking around at the room that she presumed to have once been hers, the girl scowled as she found nothing that seemed to point to her identity. _This must've been converted into a guest bedroom…after we left. _She turned her gaze to her outfit. _Pink shirt, blue overalls…I'm wearing what Anne would wear. But, I don't know if that's—_

The girl's train of thought was interrupted when she heard a startled squeak at the door. Looking up, she saw her aunt staring right at her. "Anne? How'd you get here…?" The old woman shook her head. "Never mind that! Let me go get your grandfather, and then we can catch up!" And then she was gone.

_Alright. I _must _be Anne, then_. _Uncle Frank can hold his own pretty damn well, and I doubt he'd be worried about me! What's the harm in doing a little sightseeing while I can? But, I better get out of here, first._

With that, Anne grabbed the bedsheets off the mattresses. _Wait, but first…is there still…? _She walked to the bed against the far wall and pulled up the carpet, revealing a marble tile. After removing the tile, she found what she'd been looking for: her trusty pocketknife. _Heh. How'd I lose something someplace so obvious? _Then, Anne set to work cutting the bedsheets into strips and tying them into braids. After tying the braided strips of rope together and securing it to a bedpost, she began to descend from the second story window. _Goodbye, Hong Kong! _She thought as she climbed down.

Then the rope snapped. "Wah!" she cried as she fell into a shrub. "Agh…" groaned Anne, righting herself amidst the poky branches. The runaway girl then leapt off the greenery and fled the estate, using the remnant of rope she had to hop the fence and exiting through the neighbor's yard.

_Now, I think the dockyard was…this way! _She thought as she took a left turn at the street corner._ Maybe I should ask someone just in case…Nah! I should be fine! Or, well,_ _hmm…_She placed a hand on her chin as she approached a crosswalk, where a teenage boy with a tape deck and headphones waited. _This still feels a bit weird. Could I…have made a mistake? But, no, my aunt called me "Anne," and I'm wearing her clothes! I _have _to be her! _

Just as the light turned green for passing traffic, the boy began to walk out onto the street. Seeing this, Anne panicked and screamed, "Wait, stop!"

The boy turned and lifted one of his headphones. "What?!" he asked deafly, just as a red car came hurtling toward him with its horn blaring. Anne covered her eyes and she heard a crashing sound. When she slowly opened them, she saw a cavalcade of people staring on in wonder at a new large indentation in the vehicle. Smoke spewed out of it like a locomotive, causing the confused driver and unharmed teenage boy to start coughing.

But, what really caught Anne's eye was the strangely colored wraith that was only visible for a few moments before rejoining the figure of the boy. _Was that a…? _She furiously shook her head. _No, that was just a hallucination. Nothing could've been there!_

"Hey, sorry for the trouble!" the headphoned youth shouted before walking away from the driver, who still stared confusedly at the front of his car.

"Oh, wait!" Anne called to the boy. The teenager looked back again with one headphone raised and an annoyed expression. "Could you tell me where the dockyard is?"

Thankfully, the teenager was quite generous with the instructions he wrote on a piece of notebook paper he'd pulled from the journal in his pocket. With it, Anne was easily able to reach the docks._ Hmm, would they really let a girl like me on the boat, though?_ As she drew closer, she noticed a gray newsboy hat sitting in one of the lockers left open against the dock management building. _Well, maybe I won't have to worry about that! _Anne stealthily snatched the hat from the locker after ensuring no one was looking and ran off towards the boats.

After tucking her hair into the hat and yanking it over her head, the girl poked her head out behind one of the storage crates. She spotted a group of five muscular men in outfits that varied from being perfect for the fall chill to too many layers to much too few. They all seemed to be chatting avidly about something important. _What a weird looking group…I'd probably be better off if I don't mess with them. _After adjusting her hat, Anne steeled her resolve. _Alright, time to put Operation: Voyage into action!_

* * *

The little girl opened her eyes to a ramshackle ceiling and a bandaged woman she recognized watching over her. The woman, Michel, gave a slight smile as she removed her hand from the child's forehead. "Are you alright?" the tailor asked softly.

"I'm…" the girl trailed off. As she sat up, the girl wiped at the droplets on her cheeks. The child looked down at her hands as she murmured a name: "Anne…" She wrapped her arms around herself.

Michel said nothing as she hugged the child. The girl felt a frail hand stroke her back. The child's throat felt raw, her eyes burned. She couldn't choke or sob, she couldn't even weep. So, all she did was allow the warmth of the embrace to seep into her body that felt so cold.

"I made you worry…didn't I?" the youth asked quietly.

The tailor only pulled back and took a shaky breath. Then, she reached for the notepad and pen on the bedside table and scribbled something down on the paper. When she turned it around, the sheet read, "I can't hear anything right now. I'm sorry."

The girl looked between the message and Michel several times before asking, "…What?" Michel could only give a small, sheepish smile for a moment before a note of somberness overtook her visage.

"It's a long story, squirt," a rough, Southern voice sighed from the other bed. When the girl looked toward the voice, she froze when she saw the blond cowboy known as Hol Horse lying back against the shoddy pillows.

_He doesn't work for him, anymore, remember? _the child's inner voice chided, causing the girl to loosen slightly. _Relax._

The gunman sat up and set his feet down on the side of the bed. "We can fill ya in once we got the time, Anne, but, fer now, we should be gettin' a move on."

The child shrank slightly. She kept her eyes glued to her shoes for a few long moments, as she turned the name over and over in her head. Hol Horse looked to Michel for an answer, but the taciturn tailor remained silent.

The girl thought for several moments, hesitantly but gradually loosening the chains that had anchored her in the abyss her memories had left. Bit by bit, with every recollection put in its proper place, she felt herself slowly come closer to the surface. She didn't feel so suffocated, but she had yet to see the light beyond the waves. The lonely child still felt miles away from that brightness; and yet, she felt it was at least easier to breathe.

With this limbo of thoughts still prevalent, the girl made a choice. She took a deep breath and raised her head. "Margret," she spoke quietly, but powerfully. The cowardly cowboy gave her a boggled look before she continued, "I'm…I'm not Anne. I'm…Margret."

Hol Horse raised an eyebrow. "Didja hit your head in that pet shop, too? I thought you was Anne. Ain't that why the others called ya that?"

"If I _was _Anne…could I do this?" Margret inquired as she summoned her Stand. Bachelor's Paradise emerged from her user's figure and knelt on the ground next to the skeptical cowboy. The Stand looked up at him with wide, black eyes as her ghostly white hair fluttered.

The startled gunman recoiled slightly from the unfamiliar wraith. As he collected himself, he let out a low whistle. "Shit, yer the real deal, huh…" he muttered before turning back to the timid girl. "Wait, then where the hell's yer sister?"

Margret pursed her lips and averted her eyes. "Th-That's—"

Suddenly, there was a sharp knock at the door. Hol Horse stood up with a confused look and walked toward the entrance. Michel made to follow, but the gunman placed a firm hand on her shoulder—a silent signal to remain. She acquiesced without a word of retort.

While the two girls remained in the bedroom, the boggled cowboy crossed the hall to the door. He opened it to reveal a man wearing a similarly styled outfit to the one the female receptionist from before had been wearing. "Did the dame from before fall ill?" Hol Horse queried. He clicked his tongue and muttered, "My pop always did tell me my charmin' good looks were a curse in disguise…"

The male employee's eyes narrowed before he replied, "She was actually let go earlier today. Something about her poor conduct, sir."

"Oh. Well, that's a shame."

"Indeed, sir," the replacement agreed before explaining, "There is a pair of individuals who wished to see you." The receptionist then gave a coaxing gesture to someone down the hall. He moved out of the way to allow Kasey and Silva in front of the door.

Hol Horse folded his arms. "There a _problem_?" he wondered.

Silva sighed. "Actually, yes," she confessed seriously. Then, she looked to her partner and allowed him to step forward. "Tell him what's up, Kasey," she directed.

The former engineer seemed completely nervous and frazzled—a far cry from the composed man from before or any of his personalities. With a swallow, Kasey asked lowly, "Mr. Horse. Have you ever heard of…a Mr. Brent Wilson?"

* * *

"How long are you going to keep complaining?" Abdul sighed after taking a sip from his glass of water. "I realize he's uppity, Polnareff, but he really isn't _that_ bad."

"Yeah, you're getting along with him worse than Iggy, and that's saying something," Mr. Joestar added with a chuckle.

"Oh, sure, maybe he's not that bad to you," the irritated Frenchman complained to the foreteller around a last bit of ta'ameya, "but, have you even tried to consider that someone might get hurt by all his remarks?"

The observant fortune teller cast a look to Whit, who had stepped away from the table a few minutes earlier to speak privately with Suki. He turned back to the sensitive fencer with a shrug. "Perhaps if you didn't overreact to every statement he makes, he would not gain as much amusement therefrom," Abdul suggested.

"I do _not _overreact!" Polnareff scoffed with a pout. "And, hey, why are you making it sound like this is supposed to be a fun pastime?"

"I never said I disapproved of his choice of hobby," Abdul asserted with a smirk as he folded his arms on the table.

"Why, you—!" threatened Polnareff, shaking his fist.

"Abdul, I thought you of all people would try to calm him down," Joseph wondered.

"All I'm saying is that he should learn to 'take things on the chin,' as you say in America," his friend replied.

"Well, I'm not saying that's a bad thing to teach, but…"

As Jotaro began tuning out the conversation of the three men, he cast his gaze past the two empty seats, past the occupied, green wooden tables of the open-air patio of the restaurant to the two chatting quietly by the stairs. Whit's expression seemed to hardly change in response to what Suki had to say, but the weary warrior voiced her questions and statements in a shy manner, like she was uncertain of what she was speaking about.

When she looked back to the table she had left, she waved to Jotaro with a warm smile. He felt his heart jump a bit in response before raising a hand lightly to her in reply. It required physical contact from Whit before she recalled that she was speaking with him. They seemed to finish their conversation as they began to approach the table.

"Can I take that for you?" the waiter asked Mr. Joestar in Arabic as he stacked the plates and silverware of those sitting around the table.

Mr. Joestar, who had been drinking from his glass of water, finished off the beverage before responding, "Yeah. Thanks a million." With that, the sharply dressed restaurant employee walked away from the table. The old man sighed, "It's about time. We're finally getting a bit of relief."

"It was quite the late breakfast, but I suppose it couldn't be helped," Abdul conceded.

"Yeah," Polnareff sighed as he leaned back in his seat.

"Our apologies for the cessation of our previous conversations in favor of a solo engagement," Whit expressed as he and Suki sat back down. "Did anyone regret our absence?"

"I didn't," the annoyed Frenchman muttered under his breath.

"I do not believe that Miss Kanao deserves such a harsh remark, _monsieur_," Whit shot back with a smirk, earning a beleaguered sigh from Suki.

Polnareff growled, "It wasn't for _her_, _Salaud_, it was—!"

Mr. Joestar cleared his throat loudly, catching the attention of the bickering gentlemen before they could start arguing again. "Since, we've almost made it to Cairo," Joseph suggested as he held a hand out to Abdul, "I think it's time we figured out where Dio is hiding out."

The fortune teller reached into his robes and pulled out a Polaroid camera—the same one the two Speedwagon Foundation members had given Mr. Joestar when they had dropped off Iggy. Abdul placed the device into Joseph's hand, and the fingers of the elder's prosthetic creaked closed around the camera.

"Oh, we're doin' this?" Polnareff asked as he gazed curiously at the Polaroid, which Mr. Joestar set down on the wooden surface.

"Ah, yes, I do believe this to be an illustrious proposition. I must concur," Whit agreed.

"Will it appear…?" Jotaro mused.

"I'm not sure," the old man answered his grandson's pondering, "but given that we're so close, the result should be more precise." Joseph then stood and brought his right hand up dramatically. "Alright, here we go!" His palm and fingers sparked as the thorny purple vines began to entangle around them. With a loud battle cry, he brought the side of his hand down onto the camera, its plastic structure giving completely under the weight of the blow. Most of the nearby customers stopped to stare at the source of the noise.

"E-Excuse me, sir," the waiter fretted as he returned in a hurry, "is there a problem here?"

"Everything's fine," Abdul assured stoically as he made a dismissive gesture. "Mind your own business."

"Yes, sir," the disheartened employee replied before retreating from the table.

A photo finally slipped out from the camera's intact mouth. Joseph grasped the developing film between his thumb and forefinger and held it in front of himself. He hummed as the picture slowly came into view.

"Old man. Tell us," Jotaro prodded. "What is it?"

"Just a little longer…" his grandfather stated pensively. "I see something…It's getting clearer…" Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Take a good look!" he shouted as he slapped the picture onto the table and slammed his palm down on top of it. "There you have it, ladies and gentlemen: our final destination!" Joseph announced as he removed his hand.

_This is it._ Suki leaned closer to gaze upon the image that came into view. Everyone around the table, save for Iggy, moved in to examine the photo.

What came into focus was a lavish, pale mansion surrounded by dry palms and flourishing greenery. Two walls extended back from a primary cylindrical structure that seemed to reach for the skies above with a black, round roof. The entire building was sequestered from the rest of the city by an impressive, ornate-looking brick fence.

_That's not…_

"Huh, that shouldn't be too hard to find," Polnareff evaluated with a hand on his chin.

"Hmm…I disagree," the skeptical fortune teller replied. "Cairo is almost four times as large as New York City _alone_." Polnareff raised an eyebrow. Abdul sighed. "You've at least been to Paris, yes?" The confused Frenchman nodded. "Paris is close to 100 square kilometers in area. New York City's area is near eight times that."

Then, the stoic foreteller sat back, allowing Polnareff to pull the pieces together. After around ten long seconds of counting on his fingers and thinking over what his comrade had explained to him, the Frenchman's eyes bulged. "_Sacre bleu, that _big?!" he cried in distress. "How the hell are we supposed to search all of that for _one _building?!"

"Well, we _do _have a guide," Mr. Joestar raised.

Everyone turned their eyes to Suki, who jumped at the sudden influx of attention. Everyone, except Whit, who merely sipped his water.

"Is something the matter?" Abdul asked.

Suki sighed. "I've never seen that building before," she admitted.

"How is that possible?" Polnareff wondered after a moment of shock.

"Whenever I had to visit Dio's mansion, I had to take a specific passage through a building they were also making use of. At the time, I thought if I disobeyed any orders, any hope of finding my brother would be dashed. The journey through the tunnel always felt short to me—I'd always thought it was because the buildings were close and interconnected, however haphazardly. Now that I've seen the actual mansion he's hiding in, though, I'm not sure how long that passage was supposed to be.

"I shouldn't have given you all false hope, but I promised I would guide you guys. And so, that's what I'll do," Suki assured.

"How do you propose to do that?" Abdul asked. "Aside from simply leading us through the passage, which is more than likely filled to bursting with traps in preparation for our arrival."

"I'm going to join Whit's group of scouts. He already has Kasey and Silva searching the city for any signs of Dio's henchman, but now that Whit and I know what his mansion looks like, it should be easier to find with more than four sets of eyes. I know it probably won't make up for the burden I've been on you guys but being more active about this'll be a start toward that," Suki concluded as she stood from the table. "It won't be goodbye forever; just until we find the place. I'll lead you guys in myself if I have to."

"I don't believe that will be necessary," Abdul assured with a quirked lip, "but the intent is appreciated."

Polnareff scratched the back of his neck. "We'll miss having you around," he confessed.

Joseph stood and walked over to Suki. He offered his right hand. "Safe travels," he bade. "But, hopefully, it won't be for long."

Suki accepted the gesture and shook his hand. "Thank you for letting me tag along, Mr. Joestar." She let go and turned to the rest of the group. After making eye contact with Jotaro, she said, "Thank you all again for putting up with me. If you'll excuse me."

With that, she turned around and walked down the stairs after Whit. She plodded after the eerie attendant unimpeded through the first floor of the building. After a few steps out the door onto the dusty sands, Suki felt a calloused hand on her wrist. Whit looked on as the weary warrior was stopped short. She sighed.

"I shall…go acquire the vehicle," Whit explained as he walked off. Once he was gone, the delinquent behind the girl spoke up.

"You haven't been a burden," Jotaro stated.

The softhearted knight cast a skeptical look over her shoulder at Jotaro.

"A lot of battles would have been more difficult without you. We could've even gotten killed. Even if you don't believe you're 'strong,' look up there," he directed firmly while pointing back to the second floor. Suki turned to see Mr. Joestar, Abdul, Polnareff, and Iggy all crowded around the wooden railing. "Those are people _you _helped. This journey's been hell, but _you've _made it better. They feel happy with you, even if you don't feel the same. They care about you." Jotaro swallowed as Suki met his eyes. Her warm brown irises like melted chocolate drew him in and let him confess, "I-I care…about you."

The heartache she felt unearthed itself slightly—only manifesting in her gaze before she buried it against Jotaro's chest. She was silent as she brought her arms up and embraced him. With a sense of finality, Jotaro returned the gesture, resting his cheek on the top of her head, catching the scent of candy and desert sands.

When she pulled back, there was something unfamiliar in her eyes. It was some warm, alluring feeling that Jotaro couldn't describe, but it made everything feel so far away, like all that mattered was this moment, here with this person. "Jotaro…" Suki murmured, the sound of his name on her tongue sweeter than any melody. "I-I—" She swallowed thickly. "—I…_care _about you, too." She cast her gaze to her friends at the railing. "I care about all of you."

"You…are coming back, right?" Jotaro wondered after a moment.

Suki sighed. "I have something personal to do first. But, I _will _be back," she reassured. "I don't care how I feel—I can't just back out of this."

The soft-spoken thug was silent.

The weary warrior removed the pendant from around her neck and held it out to Jotaro. The star shape glittered softly in the late morning sun.

Jotaro eyed the necklace skeptically before narrowing his eyes at Suki.

"I choose to trust you," she promised. "Not my brother, but you, Jotaro."

After searching her eyes for a few moments, Jotaro sighed softly and took the amulet offered to him. Instead of stowing it in his pocket, however, he chose to slip it over his head.

Suki smiled lightly as he adjusted the amulet to rest over his chest. "Now I'll come back without a doubt," she assured.

Jotaro gave a small smile. He brought a hand up and held her cheek, causing the weary warrior to blush. Taking the cue, she moved in closer. She spread her fingers over his chest. His heart pulsed against her palm; she couldn't help wondering if it really _was _responding to her. Letting her eyes raise to her partner's, she felt herself drop into the world-spanning seas behind Jotaro's eyes. The cold calculations she knew froze his gaze wrapped around her and warmed with the natural, caressing embrace of the ocean. She felt herself slowly rise from the bottom of the hole she'd fallen into with his waves.

Those eyes that had first baited her like a fish and firmly hooked her drew her in at this moment. They lured her closer and closer into losing herself completely until only millimeters remained between her mouth and his, until she could practically taste the residual cigarette smoke on his lips. Her eyes fluttered closed upon the first contact. She felt his mouth part slightly to fit his lips to hers while she drew her other hand up his back, embracing that excitement she experienced upon feeling his breath hitch.

His hands dragged tantalizingly up her body to pull her closer by the back as he tilted his head and pressed himself more into her. Jotaro felt like he needed to be closer and at the same time that this was enough. His body ran hot under her mouth and hands—heat rushing from the top of his head to the tips of his fingers and toes and back again. He experienced heat like he'd never felt sitting under the Egyptian sun, more warmth than he could even stand in the heavy clothes he wore. Removing clothing wouldn't resolve this, he knew. It wasn't an issue, not with her. Not as long as she was there.

After what only felt like a few scant moments, Suki pulled back. The two caught their breath as they let a rare breeze brush across their reddened cheeks. Several long seconds passed, nothing in the environment seeming more interesting in those moments than the other person, until the weary warrior swallowed lightly and spoke in a voice almost too quiet to hear, "I'm going…to miss you."

After that statement, the softhearted knight rested her head on Jotaro's chest. Her expression was somber as she slowly drummed the fingers of her open hand over his heart. Jotaro breathed a light sigh and rested an arm across Suki's back as he gazed down at her. He saw her lips quirk up into an echo of the smile she always seemed to wear around the others. Even so, her expression felt different from any other she'd shown before.

Finally, Whit pulled up in a navy off-roader. Hearing the roar of the engine, Suki pulled away, trying to hold onto Jotaro for as long as she could as she moved back. After giving him one last smile, she waved to the rest of the group. With that, she turned away and hopped into the passenger seat with the blond attendant. Whit didn't say a word as he put the car into drive and drove them down the street into the distance. Jotaro stood and stared after them until the vehicle had completely disappeared from his sight.

* * *

Chapter 22 – You Make Me Feel So Young

-END-

|To Be Continued|\|/

* * *

**ENDNOTES**

**Kotzbrocken** – German for "son of a bitch"

**Leck ****mich ****am ****Arsch**– German for "kiss my ass"

**Salaud**– French for "bastard"

**I'm a day late on this, and I have no excuse. "-_-**

**I will continue to credit my good friend SquirreLJ, who always does an amazing job editing my work and pointing out what parts work and what parts don't. Please, check him out on this site or on Ao3, he's got his own works apart from my storyline that are pretty damn well written!**

**I'd also like to extend a shoutout to the talented hajnarus, whose lovely art gave me inspiration for how the Alessi fight could've gone down! Please go support them on tumblr, I'll include a link with spaces down below!**

**I've started the next chapter, but it's slow going, so I can't promise when it will come out, but I'm optimistically hoping it comes out sometime within the next three months. Thank you guys for sticking with me for so long! I'm sending all of you all of my good vibes and hopes for good health! Stay safe, friends! -BlueBow**

**hajnarus - hajnarus . tumblr . com**


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